Bil Zelman

Bil Zelman is an American photographer and director known for his powerful, candid portraiture and spontaneous, photojournalistic style. Zelman developed a highly stylized form of hard-flash street photography while in art school and Los Angeles Times art critic Leah Ollman compares the "psychological density" of his work to the likes of Garry Winogrand, Larry Fink, Diane Arbus and William Klein- photographers that are "purposely getting it wrong in one way so as to get it right in another, disrupting visual order to ignite a kind of visceral disorder".

Zelman has photographed and directed myriad campaigns for clients ranging from Apple to Coca-Cola to Levi's and is ranked in the top 10 most awarded photographers in the Americas by Lürzer's Archive.

In 2020 Daylight Books published And Here We Are- Stories From the Sixth Extinction, a collection of noir landscapes and writings about the current extinction crisis with a foreword by Pulitzer Prize-winning biologist E. O. Wilson. The book was awarded bronze at the Prix de la Photographie, Paris.

"Equally striking as it is meaningful, this powerful work is a critical reminder that the alarms are not ringing loudly enough for many of us to hear" stated Alexandra Cousteau. The monograph was awarded the International Center of Photography Deeper Perspectives Award.

Zelman published Isolated Gesture in 2013, a collection of highly stylized black and white street photography. The book was chosen for an Art Directors Club award by Albert Watson,

Artweek portrays Isolated Gesture as "a cross between S. E. Hinton's The Outsiders and Dutch genre painting". Referencing Zelman's distinctive style, Los Angeles Times proclaims that Zelman's guiding principle is having an intense proximity to his subject, "He doesn't shoot in a war zone but in the realm of ordinary life--on the street, at parties, in restaurants and stores. Working aggressively close to his subjects, and rapidly, intensifies whatever is in front of the camera".

Selected exhibitions and permanent collections

 * 2022 And Here We Are, Interactive Installation, PhEST, Monopoli, Italy
 * 2021 And Here We Are, Multi-Media show, Cortona On the Move, Italy
 * 2021 A Nature Story, Deeper Perspectives Award, Lucie Awards
 * 2020 And Here We Are, Awarded Bronze for Books, Prix de’ la’ Photographie, Paris
 * 2016 American Sand, Lucie Foundation, Month of Photography
 * 2015 Isolated Gesture, Sparks Gallery, San Diego, California
 * 2010 Dusk, Lucie Foundation, Los Angeles, California
 * 2010 Museum of Photographic Arts, San Diego, California
 * 2008 Portland Museum of Art, Portland, Oregon
 * 2007 Isolated Gesture at Blue Sky Gallery, Portland, Oregon
 * 2007 FCMOA "Interactions" Exhibit, Ft. Collins, Colorado
 * 2007 Newspace Center for Photography, Portland, Oregon
 * 2006 Isolated Gesture Voice 1156 Gallery, Los Angeles
 * 2005 Center for Photographic Arts, Carmel, California
 * 2005 Museum of Photographic Arts, San Diego, California
 * 2002 Isolated Gesture, University of California, San Diego, California
 * 2001 Street Work Nicole Dintamin Gallery, Los Angeles, California