Bill Pierce (photographer)
Bill Pierce | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1935 |
| Alma mater | Princeton University |
| Occupation | Photojournalism |
| Awards | Overseas Press Best Photoreporting from Abroad (1982) World Press Budapest Award (1988) |
Bill Pierce (born in 1935, Waterbury) is a freelance photographer and journalist with a background in theater, who is based in New York City.
Life
[edit]Pierce was a graduate of Princeton University. He is a self-taught photographer and apprenticed with W. Eugene Smith.[1]
News photography [...] does require amazing concentration and really good reflexes.
He was a photojournalist more than 20 years, during which he covered worldwide events from the civil wars in Beirut and Lebanon to the demonstrators' call for democracy[3] in Tiananmen Square, Beijing. His first experience photographing armed conflict was the Civil Rights Movement in the United States. The first war he photographed was in Northern Ireland beginning in 1973, doing so off and on for almost a decade. In 1976 Roger Rosenblatt wrote an original story about this, expanded the text into the book Children of War and turned Pierce into one of its characters.[1][4] A few of his photographs were featured in the book as illustrations. The book won the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award in 1984.[5] In 1983 he and Bill Foley were assaulted and threatened with death by Syrian soldiers while they were trying to enter the Bekka Valley[6] in Lebanon, but they reached Tripoli safely.[7]
Pierce's work appears in major international publications such as Time. He acted as contributing editor to Popular Photography for 15 years and Newsweek, U.S. News & World Report, Life, Paris Match, The New York Times Magazine and Stern. He was also a writer for Camera 35 magazine and Popular Photography.[8] His works are represented by private collectors[9] and in exhibitions, books, permanent museum collections, such as of the National Portrait Gallery and the Corcoran Gallery of Art.
He contributed four chapters on black-and-white film and artificial lighting to the 15th edition of the book "Leica Manual" in 1974.[10] He was also featured as an interviewee in the 2015 documentary The Jazz Loft According to W. Eugene Smith.[11]
He was one of dozens of photographers—along with Neil Selkirk and Gary Miller—who have made stills of the ″Sesame Street mob″ between the years 1970 and 1982.[12][13][14]
He has given photographic lectures in The New School,[15] and on the ″Leica College Seminar″.
He has two sons, one of whom is also a photographer.[10]
Awards
[edit]- 1989 Leica Medal of Excellence (for his contributions to the project "Homeless in America")[16]
- 1988 31st World Press Photo contest[17][18]
- - Science & Technology (1st prize singles; from a demonstration of the Meissner effect)
- - Budapest Award (Individual awards; with the same picture)
- - Daily Life (Honorable Mention prize singles; from a homeless in Philadelphia)
- - Olivier Rebbot Award ("Coverage of ordinary people in times of war")(note1)
- - General Features (2nd prize singles; Research on the workings of the brain)
Some of his permanent collections
[edit]- National Portrait Gallery Collection, Smithsonian Institution[21]
- Photos: Gerald Ford (1974); Children at War (1982); John Henry Laragh (1974−75)
- New York Public Library[22]
- Photos by ″Ellis Rabb papers″: The Seagull (McCarter Theatre – Princeton, N.J.,1960); The Tavern, Twelfth Night, King Lear (McCarter Theatre – Princeton, N.J., 1961); Hamlet (Miscellaneous Productions, 1968–1969); Pantagleize (Includes photos of set, Lyceum Theatre – New York, N.Y., 1968)
Notes
[edit]- ^(note1) OPC Award is for the best photoreportage from Beirut and Northern Ireland covering the book Children of War.
References
[edit]- ^ a b Bultman, Janis (December 1984). "Ticket to Danger: An Interview with Bill Pierce". Darkroom Photography. Archived from the original on 2015-12-22. Retrieved 2015-11-28.
- ^ "76. A Farewell Gesture / Richard Nixon Departs the White House • Bill Pierce • Aug. 9, 1974 in Time History's Greatest Images BLAD 2012". content.yudu.com. Retrieved 2 December 2015.
- ^ "World Monitor: 1989". July 1989.
Cover photo (Demonstrators call for democracy in Tiananmen Square, Beijing. … Photo ©Bill Pierce/Sygma)
- ^ Roger Rosenblatt (1983). Children of War. Anchor Press, Doubleday. ISBN 0-385-18250-3.
- ^ "1984 Book Award". rfkcenter.org. Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice & Human Rights. Archived from the original on 22 December 2015. Retrieved 17 December 2015.
- ^ A recent incident in Lebanon Popular Photography vol. 90 no. 11, p.93. books.google.hu – November 1983
- ^ A Letter From The Publisher Time Vol. 121 No. 24 – Monday, June 13, 1983
- ^ Kathryn Harris (Oct 21, 1977). "Participants at photo course get tips from top U.S. lensmen". news.google.com/newspapers. St. Petersburg Times. p. 40.
- ^ "Bill Pierce's..." ibarionex.net. The Candid Frame. 31 August 2014.
- ^ a b Mary Grace Poidomani (24 April 1974). "First program of its kind – Leica sponsors photo seminar". Digital Daily Kent Stater Archive. Daily Kent Stater, Volume XVIII, Number 94. Retrieved 10 December 2015.
- ^ Bill Pierce (XVI) at IMDb
- ^ "New York City". American Photographer. 8: 15. 1982.
- ^ Lily Rothman (10 November 2014). "5 Things You Didn't Know About the Early (Sunny) Days of Sesame Street". Time. Retrieved 10 December 2015.
- ^ Michael Davis (2008). Street Gang: The Complete History of Sesame Street. Penguin. ISBN 9781440658754.
- ^ "Focus 83". Popular Photography vol. 90 no. 6, p.164. June 1983. Retrieved 9 December 2015.
- ^ A Day in the Life of Italy. 1990. ISBN 9780002157292.
Collins Publishers San Francisco
- ^ a b "Bill Pierce Photographer, USA". worldpressphoto.org. Retrieved 23 November 2015.
- ^ "1988 Photo Contest". worldpressphoto.org. Retrieved 23 November 2015.
- ^ David Kline (15 August 1983). "Portables". books.google. InfoWorld. p. 33. Retrieved 20 July 2017.
- ^ "1975 Photo Contest". worldpressphoto.org. Retrieved 23 November 2015.
- ^ "Search Term: "Bill Pierce"". Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved 9 December 2015.
- ^ "Ellis Rabb papers 1930–1995 and undated". New York Public Library – Archives & Manuscripts. Retrieved 9 December 2015.
(Box 53, 54, 55)
Sources
[edit]- Guide to the Jazz Loft Project Records, 1950–2012 and undated → Bill Pierce by Sam Stephenson, Duke University Libraries, Retrieved 9 December 2015
- Camera by John Durniak; Published: The New York Times Company, October 6, 1991
- I Quit...Again by Ctein, theonlinephotographer.typepad.com (The Online Photographer (a.k.a. TOP) edited by Mike Johnston); 9 October 2013
- A Day in the life of America pp. 267 by Rick Smolan, David Cohen, Leslie Smolan – 1985
- Autofocus, Popular Photography pp. 32, 34, 36, 58-59 – April 1990
- Bill Pierce master printer by Russel Hart, American Photo pp. 20 – January/February 1994.
- Homeless in America Michael Evans, National Mental Health Association (U.S.), Families for the Homeless (Group) Acropolis Books, pp. 15 – 1988
- War torn by Susan Vermazen, Pantheon Books, 1984.
- District Native Camptures Globe′s Hot Spot on Film by Jerry Vondas, The Pittsburgh Press – Jul 11, 1983
External links
[edit]- Bill Pierce on the webpage RKD (Netherlands Institute for Art History)
- Part of Bronx Documentary Center, paddle8.com
- Voigtlander Bessa T – Telemetro, cameraquest.com; April 11, 2015
- Bill Pierce on Tumblr
- Pierce photographer on Getty Images
- Princeton Alumni Weekly volume LXVII no 28 cover & describe – May 30, 1967
- Stories and photos From Studio A (1955) – Story from Larry Creshkoff, WGBH Alumni – January 1, 2007
- A note and pictures from legendary photojournalist Bill Pierce[permanent dead link] by Bronx Documentary Center – March 3, 2012
- Nuts and Bolts by Bill Pierce, digitaljournalist.org March 2008
- Fotojournalistiek, een vak voor jonge mensen? by Anne-Marie Van Midden, Villamedia Magazine Nederlandse Vereniging van Journalisten (VillaMedia.nl, Dutch) – 17 May 2005
- Photojournalism: An Ethical Approach by Paul Martin Lester on Google Books, Routledge (Originally published in 1991)
- In-depth interview and coverage of Pierce on Stitcher podcast by Ibarionex Perello, "The Candid Frame" (interview-portrait); August 31, 2014
- Bill Pierce interview (via phone) by Larry Lawrence (archive.org) – April 5, 2013
