While pursuing a degree in English from Lycoming College in Pennsylvania, Terry Wild decided he could express more through pictures than words. He transferred to Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles and received his BFA in 1971. That same year, Wild was included in a show at the Pasadena Art Museum called "The Crowded Vacancy: Three Los Angeles Photographers," along with Lewis Baltz and Anthony Hernandez. After several years amid the frenetic activity of L.A. photographic community, Wild returned to the familiar landscape of Pennsylvania; taking a part-time position at Lycoming College, where he founded the photography department.

Wild's photographs are in the permanent collections of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Santa Barbara Museum of Art, the Norton Simon Museum of Art, and The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Nelson-Atkins Museum, among others.