Bill makes images for people who enjoy dramatic moments in nature. He is a fine art landscape photographer transitioning to digital documentary multi-media work.
As a landscape photographer, he combines the traditional large format camera, scans large format film transparencies and prints archival digital exhibition prints. He has also learned traditional hand bookbinding and prepares individual art books of his photos in clamshell boxes.
Bill began photography almost four decades ago in Honolulu, Hawaii. Perhaps because of the natural beauty of Hawaii, his work has always emphasized natural light and landscapes. Bill also paints based on this photographs with oils and acrylics to increase his sensitivity to color and composition.
As a multi-media photographer, Bill is using the latest Nikon D 700 and D 800 cameras to capture stills and video clips to combine with recorded interviews and environmental sounds into slide shows and videos. He works in Adobe Premier Pro CS6 and Final Cut Pro X to create videos for presentation on the internet.
Personal Vision
Bill sees profound beauty in nature: ancient trees on desert mountain tops; the contest between sea and rocky coasts; wind blown trees; artifacts of man; and , shifting sand dunes. He especially enjoys the quiet and solitude of waiting for the light before dawn.
Bill also sees great dignity in individual lives, and this is what has led him to capture conversations in multi-media presentations. Current multi-media presentations include Sea of Souls: Skid Row Los Angeles, Times Square: Cross Roads of the World, and Mariachi Plaza: East Los Angeles.
Bill participated in the November 2012 MediaStorm Storytelling Workshop. He had the following to say about his experience:
The MediaStorm Storytelling Workshop came highly recommended and exceeded my expectations. The team from MediaStorm included Eric Maierson, Rob Finch, and Leandro Badalotti under the guidance of Brian Storm. It was clear from the start that all involved had a tireless passion for story telling and worked extremely hard to tell the best story possible.
The effort started upon being selected for the workshop with the push to find a compelling person to interview. I learned a lot about researching stories, who makes a good candidate, tracking down contact information, and enjoyed cold calling to help line up the story. We set a new record for pre-workshop emails as my teammates Marcin Szczepanski and Markel Redondo, along with Eric and Rob, dug in to research and debate story ideas.
The first day of the workshop was Brian going over his approach to story telling, the structure of the week, and a detailed review of past workshop videos to get an understanding of what makes a great story work. It was clear that our objective was to tell the person’s story to the best of our ability. The video we were to produce was a gift to the person being interviewed and brought the responsibility of getting the story right.
Rob led the effort in the field, and did a superb job of explaining the technical side of setting up shots. Rob was diplomatic and persistent in getting the subject of our video, Benny Villanova, to allow us personal access into his daily routine.
Eric led the effort of editing and constantly bounced ideas off others to get feedback. Brian focused on the narrative and provided guidance on which sections were most meaningful and the sequence of the story.
Leandro was a workhorse editing hours and hours of B-roll shots, researching music clips, and maintaining back up copies throughout each step of the process.
The strength of the MediaStorm approach is the use of dual tracks -- written narrative and video editing – to hone in on the story line. The written narrative or dialog set the primary arc of the story based on a formal interview with Benny. The written narrative was edited down to a tight sequence of plot points, and illustrated in Adobe Premier Pro by the layering in of B-roll shots taken by Marchin, Markel and Rob.
As a workshop participant in the editor role, I watched Eric’s approach to editing that can only be described as a blizzard of subtle adjustments to audio and video tracks. The edit in and out points were constantly refined and checked with the written narrative. I found it particularly insightful to see how Eric overlapped transition points and adjusted changes in volume to good effect.
There were two teams working on different stories during the week. The final event of the workshop was the screening of both stories. It was helpful to see the differences in the way the teams shot their stories and to discuss the challenges both faced in getting to the personal motives of their subjects. There was healthy debate about whether or not we got the story right and the ethics of showing the result to the world.
Just as the one-week workshop was preceded by a month of preparation, I am finding that reviewing the pages and pages of notes made during the week is a continuing learning tool.
Most importantly, I enjoyed my time immersed in the family of passionate storytellers that is MediaStorm. It was like drinking from a fire hose, and I will be reliving the experience again and again to gain a better insight into dramatic storytelling.
Thank you Brian and the rest of the MediaStorm team!

Once teetering on the brink of extinction, the Santa Catalina Island Fox made a dramatic recovery. Its resurgence marks one of the greatest conservation success stories in United States history.

In the shadow of Silicon Valley’s booming technology industry, a growing number of people remain out in the cold. Skyrocketing housing prices in America’s hub of innovation have pushed many onto the streets, straining policymakers to find solutions to a homelessness problem that impacts everyone in the community.

This page recognizing Zora J Murff for ICP’s 2023 Infinity Award for Documentary Practice and Visual Journalism features a film about his life, a slideshow of his projects and extra clips of his thoughts about his work and motivation.

Sebastião Salgado says "a good picture, a fantastic picture, you do in a fraction of a second, but to arrive to do this picture, you must put your life in there."

Esther Horvath has sent questions to the universe and she has received answers. She found her calling to tell visual stories that show the full research story behind our climate data.

See photographer Acacia Johnson’s growth from her earliest explorations of Alaskan landscapes to a National Geographic cover for a documentary project among indigenous people of the Arctic.

Sir Don McCullin never intended to become a photographer. He found it hard to believe he’d ever escape the poverty of North London. But a spur of the moment photograph launched McCullin into a career spanning 50 years in photography.

As the U.S. prepares for the final drawdown of soldiers from the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, Soledad O’Brien and MediaStorm take an intimate look at two veterans as they struggle with the transition from war to home.

Writer Zadie Smith pays homage to photographer Deana Lawson in the artist’s first Monograph for Aperture.

As a formerly incarcerated person, Michael struggled for work, and found purpose in being a husband, father, and activist. But 7 years since his release from prison, the cost of Michael’s activism is evident.

Benny is a “certified” garbologist. He collects what others throw away. Benny is also at war with his family. Here is a man sharing a house with his wife but living as a stranger. This is a household on the edge.

Photographer Amber Bracken recognized something deeper than a protest was afoot when hundreds of tribes gathered at the Standing Rock reservation in opposition to the Dakota Access Pipeline.

How does the death of a child change a parent? How does the death of a parent change a child? How do these moments change us as we develop and grow further away from who we were as children?

Maurice Berger–cultural historian, and columnist for the New York Times’ Race Stories–has spent his career studying and teaching racial literacy through visual literacy.

Japan’s Disposable Workers examines the country’s employment crisis: from suicide caused by overworking, to temporary workers forced by economics to live in internet cafes, and the elderly who wander a town in search of shelter and food.

Karl Ove Knausgaard is the celebrated author of a massive six-volume autobiography. But Knausgaard remains confused by the attention. This is a portrait of a man who has achieved massive success yet still considers himself unworthy.

Michael Thomasson has devoted his life to video games. It’s been his passion and his obsession for more than three decades. He owns over 11,000 unique game titles for more than 100 different systems.

A film about Michael Christopher Brown for the 2017 ICP Infinity Awards.

The Long Night, a feature film by Tim Matsui and MediaStorm, gives voice and meaning to the crisis of minors who are forced and coerced into the American sex trade.

Jonathan Harris and Greg Hochmuth have a complicated relationship with the internet and have worked together to develop an artwork that explored some of the more difficult consequences of what it means to live with the internet.

In 1977, Robyn Davidson walked 1,700 miles across the Australian outback. National Geographic sent Rick Smolan to photograph her perilous journey—a trek that tested and transformed them, forming an immutable bond that continues to this day.

Once at the center of the U.S. economy, the family farm now drifts at its edges. In Iowa, old-time farmers try to hang on to their way of life, while their young push out to find their futures elsewhere. Driftless tells their stories.

The American family farm gives way to a subdivision - a critical cultural shift across the U.S. Common Ground is a 27-year document of this transition, through the Cagwins and the Grabenhofers, two families who love the same plot of land.

For Walter Backerman, seltzer is more than a drink. It’s the embodiment of his family. As a third generation seltzer man, he follows the same route as his grandfather. But after 90 years of business, Walter may be the last seltzer man.

Larry Fink has spent over 40 years photographing jazz musicians, wealthy manhattanites, his neighbors, fashion models, and the celebrity elite. His archive is a thoughtful collection of American history, and Fink’s experience of it.

LaToya Ruby Frazier’s body of work “The Notion of Family” examines the impact of the steel industry and the health care system on the community and her family. Collaborating with her mother and grandmother, she uses her family as a lens to view the past, present and future of the town.

Tomas Van Houtryve wants there to be a permanent visual record of the dawn of the drone age, the period in American history when America started outsourcing their military to flying robots. In order to create this record, Van Houtryve sent his own drone into American skies.

Evgenia Arbugaeva was born in the magical town of Tiksi, Russia. This barren, arctic landscape influenced Arbugaeva in almost every aspect of her dreamlike photography.

Surviving the Peace: Laos takes an intimate look at the impact of unexploded bombs left over from the Vietnam war in Laos and profiles the dangerous, yet life saving work, that MAG has undertaken in the country.

A family is determined to give their disabled son a whole and vital life. In the midst of a great burden, one small child – with a seemingly endless supply of love – is the blessing that holds a family together.

Inspired by the photographs of the Farm Security Administration growing up, Lynn Johnson has spent nearly 35 years as a photojournalist working for LIFE, National Geographic, Sports Illustrated and various foundations.

Resetting the Table takes a unique, personal look at the impact Starbucks’ Create Jobs for USA program has had on the American Mug & Stein pottery facility in East Liverpool, Ohio.

Hungry Horse captures the spirit of renewal, peace and serenity through stunning landscapes and intimate oral histories.

Using humor and a love of fantasy, "The Amazing Amy" Harlib connects with audiences through performing strenuous yoga-based contortion acts in New York City.

In many countries, girls as young as eight are forced into marriage by their families, culture and economic situation. This practice destroys their chance at education leading to tragic results.

Surreal and mysterious, North Korea was a black hole to outsiders wanting a glimpse of the country. That all changed in 2012, when AP photographer David Guttenfelder led the opening of the bureau's newest office inside the North Korea.

Virginia Gandee's brilliant red hair and dozen tattoos belie the reality of this 22-year-old's life. Inside her family's Staten Island trailer her caregiving goes far beyond the love she has for her daughter.

Based on 14 trips to Afghanistan between 1994 and 2010, A Darkness Visible: Afghanistan is the work of photojournalist Seamus Murphy. His work chronicles a people caught time and again in political turmoil, struggling to find their way.

In Rwanda, in 1994, Hutu militia committed a bloody genocide, murdering one million Tutsis. Many of the Tutsi women were spared, only to be held captive and repeatedly raped. Many became pregnant. Intended Consequences tells their stories.

To those who serve in the armed forces, what is the aftereffect of war? The Marlboro Marine is photographer Luis Sinco's portrait of Marine Corporal James Blake Miller, whom he met in Iraq. For Miller, coming home has been its own battle.

Zakouma National Park is one of the last places on earth where elephants still roam by the thousands. In a land where poachers will slaughter the huge animals for their tusks alone, it takes armed guards to keep them safe.

Kingsley's Crossing is the story of one man's dream to leave the poverty of life in Africa for the promised land of Europe. We walk in his shoes, as photojournalist Olivier Jobard accompanies Kingsley on his uncertain and perilous journey.
The MediaStorm Platform is an advanced video platform that extends the user experience beyond linear video to include the interactive capabilities of the Internet.
The MediaStorm Platform is an advanced video platform that extends the user experience beyond linear video to include the interactive capabilities of the Internet.
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