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Nairobi, Kenya / Takoma Park MD, USA

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“Photography is not just pictures, it’s a stance: curiosity, empathy, a worldview, being present. Photography is mindfulness. It’s about our relationship with life, our habitat, each other, and ourselves.”

Bio

A warrior for truth-telling, empathy, community, education, and change through the arts

Bill Crandall’s extensive background shows deep experience, understanding, and action across photography, arts education, and music.

Currently living in Nairobi, Bill is one of Washington DC’s leading documentary photographers and photo educators. He has won awards, exhibited internationally, and been published by publications such as New York Times, Washington Post, National Geographic’s photo blog, and countless others.

As an artist, his photography (and music) often explores the human implications of sweeping historical changes, taking nuanced and insightful looks at topics such as the aftermath of communism in Eastern Europe, gentrification, the climate crisis, and Mars colonization.

He has given artist talks at the International Center for Journalists, the National Press Club, American University Metropolitan Policy Center, and the FotoweekDC photo festival.

In addition to his 15-year photo teaching career at the prestigious Maret School, he has taught private workshops, from the World Bank to Belarus to Nairobi’s Kibera slum.

In a 2015 reader poll by Washington City Paper he was voted Best Visual Artist.

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In 2024-25, Bill led a photo workshop at the Human Needs Project in Nairobi’s Kibera slum, and provided mentorship to the new generation of documentary photographers telling their stories in Nairobi, Kenya.

During COVID, he was the organizer of socially-distanced driveway concerts for the community and to support artists with nowhere to perform.

In 2019 he was co-organizer of the Climate Voices: Artists Respond to Climate Change event in Takoma Park MD.

In 2015 he was part of an exhibition and artist panel in support of Black Lives Matter.

In 2014 he was part of a group exhibition and artist panel about fracking, held at St Mary’s College in Maryland.

Bill’s 2012 photo book, The Waiting Room, was the first ever produced on cultural identity in post-Soviet Belarus, and won a second place in Fotoweek DC’s International Photobook Awards. A Russian-language Voice of America review of the work called Bill “an American master”.

In 2009, Bill was invited as an instructor for the launch of the Summer Photopracticum at Minsk’s first and only independent photography school, and won a US embassy cultural grant for his participation.

In 2006, the 20th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster, Bill co-organized and curated the Chernobyl20 exhibition, featuring the world’s best photography on the disaster’s environmental and human toll. The exhibit opened at the UN on the day of a Special Assembly on Chernobyl, and in the Rayburn Congressional office building on Capitol Hill.

In 2001, “The Seeing-Eye” photo project in Minsk was a collaboration conceived by Bill, Belarusian photography curator Uladzimir Parfianok, and leading Czech photographer Karel Cudlin to help establish the tradition of creative documentary photography in authoritarian Belarus.

As photo director of Balkan Times online news portal in 2000, he used photography to help regional news in post-war former Yugoslavia cut through years of distrust and disinformation. He also helped lead media workshops in Belgrade after the Kosovo conflict.

As a full-time photo educator, Bill integrated forward-looking ideas about empathy, personal vision, and nature allyship into his photo curriculum for young people.

Through his Viaduct Arts banner, he hosted numerous local art salons, concerts, meetups, and discussion events at the grassroots level. He also promoted the role of art and artists in shaping our future through his Viaduct Arts email newsletter.

As a musician, Bill conceived and created an innovative music-photo hybrid project imagining the first humans to leave Earth forever for distant, barren Mars. The implied manifesto being the need to safeguard the environment of our only home.

Student Testimonials

“You taught me that art is everywhere, and can be done by anyone. It's been an amazing and rewarding journey.”

"I'm very grateful to have a teacher who created such a positive and caring environment."

"I've learned so much, from the basics of photography to exploring more of what makes me me."

"It was your perfect balance of guidance and allowing for artistic freedom and experimentation."

"I feel so lucky to have learned about photography from an expert whose work I so greatly admire."

"It's amazing how my view on the world has changed because of this class."

"You taught me how to process and capture the world around me in a new way - it has been truly life-changing."

"I will never forget your mentoring. You helped me develop not just as an artist, but as a human being as well."

"I am so proud of what you have helped me create. You are truly a gifted teacher."

CV (select)

Experience

1995 - present Independent photographer

2018 - present Viaduct Arts salons, COVID concerts, newsletter

2008 - 2023 Photography teacher, Maret School

2004 - 2014 Founding member and Photo Editor, Metro Collective

2006 Organizer/Curator, Chernobyl20 exhibition

1999 - 2000 Photo Director, Balkan Times

Activities

2024

  • Created photobook library to Kibera Films and Creative Hub - Nairobi, Kenya

  • Guest photography teacher at Kibera Films and Creative Hub - Nairobi, Kenya

2023

  • Left Washington DC photo teaching job after 15 years, moved to Nairobi, Kenya

  • Led documentary photo workshop at Human Needs Project, Kibera - Nairobi, Kenya

  • Mentored documentary photographers, Kibera - Nairobi, Kenya

2022

  • Conceived and produced All-School Art Show website, Maret School - Washington DC

2021

  • Conceived and produced All-School Art Show video, Maret School - Washington DC

  • Organizer, Songs of Solidarity concert - Takoma Park MD

2020

  • Organizer, Roadside Attractions concert series (COVID) - Takoma Park MD

  • Completed Media and Arts for Peace micro-course, US Institute for Peace

2019

  • Organizer, Climate Voices: Artists Respond to Climate Change - Takoma Park MD

  • Member, Takoma Park Arts Commission - Takoma Park MD

2018

  • Organizer, Viaduct Arts house salon series - Takoma Park MD

2016

  • Conceived/wrote/co-produced original full-length music album, New World Voyage

  • Live-score music/video performance at closing party, Fotoweek DC festival - Washington DC

  • Artist talk, Fairy Tales and Fault Lines at Metropolitan Policy Ctr, American University - Washington DC

2015

  • Panelist, FotoweekDC talk: Finding Your Vision - Getting and Staying Inspired - Washington DC

  • Judge, FotoweekDC Photo Competition - Washington DC

  • Member, FotoweekDC Curatorial Committee - Washington DC

  • Publication, District of Change, Washington Post Magazine

  • Publication, The Real DC, National Geographic PROOF

  • Award, Best Visual Artist, Washington City Paper's "Best of DC" reader poll

  • Exhibition, Black Lives / White Light, ReCreative Spaces - Washington DC

  • Artist talk, Black Lives / White Light, ReCreative Spaces - Washington DC

2014

  • Exhibition, Fracking PA: Documentary Practice and Environmental Activism - St Mary's College, MD

  • Artist talk, Fracking PA - St Mary's College, MD

  • Artist talk, National Art Honor Society's Creative Industries Studio - Washington DC

  • Artist talk, How Czech Surrealism Saved Me from Photojournalism, FotoweekDC - Washington DC

  • Collaboration, Notes from the Marcellus Shale fracking project w/ poet Craig Czury - Springville, PA

2013

  • Instructor, Developing a BW Vision workshop at Int'l Photo Society, World Bank - Washington DC

  • Guest Artist, World Views exhibition and lectures - St Mary's College, MD

  • Lecture, E. European Cinematography and Photography, Maret School - Washington DC

  • Presenter, Pecha Kucha slideshow, House of Sweden - Washington DC

  • Award, Tallinn, 2nd place, Contemporary Life category, FotoweekDC Awards - Washington DC

  • Exhibition, Tallinn, FotoweekDC International Awards, National Geographic - Washington DC

  • Artist talk, International Photographic Society, World Bank/IMF - Washington DC

  • Residency, Talo Creative Residency - Rovaniemi, Finland (Lapland)

  • Artist talk, Belarus: Isolation and Identity - National Press Club - Washington DC

  • Award, Teacher Award of Excellence, Columbia Scholastic Press Association

2012

  • Uncover/Discover exhibition, FotoweekDC - Washington DC

  • International Photobook Awards exhibition, Goethe Institute - Washington DC

  • Artist talk, The Waiting Room, Int'l Center for Journalists - Washington DC

  • Award, The Waiting Room, 2nd pl, FotoweekDC Int’l Photobook Awards

  • Portfolio Reviewer, Goethe Institute, FotoweekDC - Washington DC

  • Award, Teacher Award of Excellence, Columbia Scholastic Press Association

2011

  • Artist talk, The Waiting Room, FotoweekDC - Washington DC

  • Exhibition, Uncover/Discover - Arlington VA (selected by Philip Brookman, Senior Curator at Corcoran Gallery of Art)

2010

  • Exhibition, Px3 Aftermath - Paris, France

2009

  • Exhibition, Foto8 Summer Show - London, UK

  • Exhibition, The Power of Elections - Ronald Reagan Ctr, DC / Paley Ctr for Media, NYC (ICFJ)

  • Instructor, Summer Photopracticum documentary workshop - Minsk, Belarus

  • Grant, US Embassy lecture and photo presentation - Minsk, Belarus

2008

  • Residency, International Art Symposium - Dorobanti, Romania

  • Exhibition, International Art Symposium - Arad, Romania

  • Exhibition, East, ZOYA Galleria, Warsaw, Poland

2006

  • Curator, Chernobyl20 exhibition - Washington DC / United Nations NY

2005

  • Judge, CEC ArtsLink grant competition - Washington DC

  • Arabbers exhibition - Creative Alliance, Baltimore MD

  • Exhibition, Kosovo and Serbia, Transphotographiques Festival - Lille, France

  • Exhibition, Kosovo and Serbia, International Festival of Photography - Lodz, Poland

2004

  • Exhibition, Baltimore, International Festival of Photography - Lodz, Poland

2003

  • Grant, US Embassy for solo exhibition - Minsk, Belarus

  • Exhibition, Arabbers, Villa Julie Gallery - Baltimore MD

  • Exhibition, Seeing-Eye II (solo) - Nova Gallery of Visual Arts, Minsk, Belarus

  • Exhibition, Richest Man in Babylon, Govinda Gallery - Washington DC (curated by Thievery Corporation)

  • Father-son exhibition, Strathmore Hall - Bethesda, MD

2002

  • Exhibition (solo), Dom Omladine - Belgrade, Serbia

2001

  • Grant, CEC ArtsLink for Belarus collaboration

  • Exhibition/workshop, The Seeing-Eye (w/ Karel Cudlin), Nova Gallery of Visual Arts - Minsk, Belarus

1999

  • Award, 1st Place/Feature Story, Along the Line, National Press Photographers Association