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Kharen Hill ... article content follows. Kharen Elizabeth Hill (born 1962 in New Zealand) is an award-winning North American portrait photographer, artist and director. She is best known for her portraits of famous celebrities and musicians including Clint Eastwood, Amy Adams, Ron Howard, Neil Patrick Harris, Alec Baldwin, David Duchovny, Sarah McLachlan, Jennifer Beals, Kiss, Nathan East and many others.

Nicknamed "The Annie Leibovitz of Canada", she developed her career as an entertainment advertising photographer in Vancouver as it became a major production center in the mid-1990’s, after previously specializing in travel reportage and advertising photography. She is renowned for her entertainment advertising, music photography, and directing, working with clients worldwide in film, television, actors, musicians and travel puts her in select group of photographers and directors.

Hill is much influenced by Annie Leibovitz and Steven Klein, being inspired by their individual portrait style and lighting techniques. Self-taught as a director, Kharen is known for her directing style working with natural light and has been inspired by Tobias Schliessler Director of Photography for “Beauty and the Beast” and ‘Lone Survivor”. Her ability to craft iconic images with lighting or available light and creative choices for destinations and environments make her work unique, compelling and memorable, and helps her find a fluidity in both motion and stills.

Early Life and Education

Kharen Elizabeth Hill was born in 1962 at Auckland Hospital New Zealand to Dr. Roger Stockwell Hill, cancer researcher, and Diana Elizabeth Lunn. She attended primary schools in Auckland, New Zealand, Rochester, New York and London, England as the family moved around the world for the career of her father.

Returning to New Zealand for high school, Kharen put her desire to be an artist aside when she gained a bursary facilitating her acceptance to the Bachelor of Commerce program at Auckland University where she completed one year of the Bachelor of Commerce degree. After completing one additional term at the University of British Columbia Commerce Degree program in Canada, she left to follow her passion for photography and media.

Accepted in the specialized media resources program at Capilano University. Kharen became one of 12 exceptional graduates featured by the department for her contribution to students and her success in her field. She has worked as a professional photographer since that time, with a focus on the entertainment, music, and advertising in both Los Angeles and in Vancouver.

CAREER

Early Years

The 21 year old Kharen was discovered as a photographer by the creative director Paul Smith. For her first assignment, she was selected as one of two photographers for a yearlong project for Air Canada, flying around the world taking photos of every city where the airline flew. She worked with Creative House for many projects for Expo 86 and her photographs were published in several commemorative books and collections. The Expo experience opened doors for her to many advertising clients and other companies in Vancouver and worldwide, and her career in advertising, travel and location photography took off.

She spent the 80’s and early 90s with advertising and corporate assignments, building up a solid client list including photography for major brands Coca Cola, A & W restaurants, Boston Pizza, Blackcomb Mountain resorts, Toyota, Lexus, Cathay Pacific Asian Tours, and Canadian Airlines. Kharen added special skills with on the job experience including Ariel photography, both out of open helicopters and in fixed wing planes, She excelled at special sport photography from being in the pits at the Vancouver Indy car races to photographing track and field of Canadian Olympic athletes. She travelled across Canada and abroad for national and international clients, including several trips to Asia for Cathay Airlines and multiple trips to Hong Kong and Singapore for various clients.

Entertainment Advertising, Music Photography and Directing

In the mid-1990’s, Kharen’s career shifted somewhat as she began to flourish additionally in both entertainment advertising and directing on two fronts: music, and the Canadian and Los Angeles-based film and television industry.

Terry McBride, Nettwerk Records led to an introduction to Sarah McLachlan and a continued professional relationship for 30 years. She also photographed Avril Lavigne for her “Let Go” Album publicity and those images became iconic and trendsetting influencing the style of teenager’s worldwide with her signature men's tie and signature straightened hair and dark eye makeup.

Kharen started in films working doing gallery and unit photography for the non-union films of the late Bill Vince’s company Keystone Entertainment. She then went on to shoot unit stills and the gallery photography for twelve of his movies. Keystone flourished with their “Air Bud” movies, a franchise later spun off to Disney who continued to use her photography.

Logging enough hours on set as a unit photographer, she became the first female photographer admitted to the local Vancouver chapter of the film industry union, IATSE 669.

Kharen’s big break came quickly in 1998 -- shooting the gallery for the film called Disturbing Behaviour, (Katie Holmes’ first feature length film). with MGM creative advertising. This led to national billboard campaigns and the launch of Katie Holmes as a film actress.

In 2000, she secured the stills job on the biggest feature in Vancouver called “Romeo Must Die” produced by Warner Brothers and starring Jet li and Aaliyah and shot the movie poster for that movie.

Kharen then decided to give up unit photography to focus on entertainment advertising.

MGM and Kharen partnered on a regular basis on their films in Los Angeles and other US locations, working on notable films including ‘Carrie 2’, "the Mod Squad" and "Mollie".

Kharen’s work for MGM secured her place in the select group of photographers regularly called on to do gallery and poster film work in North America. She began to work steadily in the film and television industry and established a solid reputation while continuing to work with her advertising and corporate clients.

In 2007, Kharen established a part-time base in both Los Angeles and Vancouver, working worldwide on gallery shoots, advertising campaigns and her art work. With the changing technologies Kharen now often directs both photography and motion on her shoot days.

Kharen continues to be recognized as a premier talent in the entertainment and advertising areas, continuing her advertising and commercial work for major brands national clients.

She works across North America in Los Angeles, New York, Nashville, Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver. Kharen often takes her crew to smaller locations to accommodate film productions for television and motion pictures, or for an editorial or advertising subject located in a smaller center.

She continues her work for national clients in music advertising for major brands. Yamaha Music Group selected her to photograph Nathan East, one of the most recorded bass players in the history of music, for his debut album for their new record label. She collaborated on the Grammy award nominated Jars of Clay. Both were nominated for Grammys. She also directed Sarah McLachlan’s “Good Enough” music video.

Fine art photography

Kharen’s fine art photography is receiving acclaim around the world and has been placed in collections in Canada, USA, and Europe.(reference 20161023 resume on her website).

In 2009, Kharen traveled with the Grammy-nominated Jars of Clay on an Aid mission to Nairobi, Kenya to document their non-profit “Blood Water Mission”. The photographs she took, “Out the Window, 5 Days in Kenya”, became the subject of her first successful solo show of fine art photography, curated and in collaboration with art collector Lucia Lundin in Los Angeles, in 2014. Kharen has also joined with fellow New Zealanders to collaborate and show at “Kiwis in LA” a yearly art show at Santa Monica art studios in 2013, 2015 and 2016.

PERSONAL LIFE

Kharen currently divides her time between Beverly Hills/Los Angeles and Vancouver.

She also has volunteered her photography, video and directorial skills to numerous non-profits: including the 2014 Surfer's Healing San Diego for Autism benefit and Meyer Nash advertising campaign. Her long-standing association with Sarah McLachlan has led to ongoing fundraising through her video and photography for the Sarah McLachlan School of Music since 2010, including 2016's Barefoot in the Back Yard. One of her most gratifying efforts has been the 2010 Blood Water Mission – Jars of Clay – donations from sales of images in art show “Out the Window “ 5 days in Kenya.

AWARDS/RECOGNiTION

Applied Arts: International Photography Competition. Award for Portrait Series “Men of Hollywood`”. July 2010 http://www.appliedartsmag.com/winners_gallery/photogaphy/?id=1049&year=20 10&cl

Photo District News: Award for Faces competition. PDN Celebrity Editorial July 2010. https://stocklandmartelblog.com/2010/08/20/winners-of-the-2010-pdn-faces-contest/

References[change | change source]
http://www.appliedartsmag.com/winners_gallery/photogaphy/?id=1049&year=20

Other websites[change | change source]

 * http://wwww.publicpictures.com


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