Bill Hatcher

Bill Hatcher has been a fulltime photographer for over 20 years.

Bill became captivated with photography, travel and exploration as a wee lad, while listening to his photojournalist grandfather relate tales of chasing down interviews with colorful history makers such as Pancho Villa, Haile Selassie and Harry Truman. While at university in Germany and Wyoming, Bill fostered a love of photography in the outdoors, particularly the mountains. At age 20, a wild three month climbing expedition into Eastern Turkey cemented Bill's plans to make photography a full-time endeavor.

His 1988 photo-documentation of the first free ascent of the Salathe Wall on Yosemite's El Capitan established him as one of the world’s leading climbing and expedition photographers. Since his 1996 cover story for National Geographic, Storming the Tower, set in Pakistan’s Karakoram Mountains, Bill has shot several more National Geographic features around the world.

Bill’s photos have been published on over 50 magazine covers, both in the US and internationally. His assignments have taken him to the summit of Denali, collapsed Uranium mines, the jungles of the Darien Gap, Mexican caves, the cliffs of Mali, Himalayan big walls, and the Amazon. This work has appeared in Smithsonian, Outside Magazine, Newsweek, Paris Match and GEO, in addition to many specialized magazines/journals such as Climbing, Bike, Snowboarding, Archaeology and

Edentata. His commerical work includes clients such as Nikon, the Discovery Channel, Reebok, Ralph Lauren, Nike, Patagonia, North Face and Montbell.

Bill’s photography and puts him on the road about 200 days a years. Bill is currently based in New Zealand until July exploring and photographing the people and activities in New Zealands mountains, rivers and coastline. You can see some of this work on his blog at billhatcher.typepad.com