Bil C. Zelman is an American photographer and director known for his candid portraiture and spontaneous, photojournalistic style.Hughes, Holly Stuart. Photo District News. "A Hands-Off Approach to Real-People Shoots"Archived 2012-03-11 at the Wayback Machine 17 August 2009 Zelman developed a stylized form of hard-flash street photography while in art schoolHaggart, Rob. "Bil Zelman Shoots Pro Bono, But Not For Free" A Photo Editor. 8 December 2008 (/) 8 December 2008. and Los Angeles Times art critic Leah Ollman compares the "psychological density"Ollman, Leah. In `No Single Truth,' Humanity's Potential for Good and Bad Los Angeles Times. 16 November 2001. of his work to 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".Ollman, Leah. Saatchi Online
Zelman has photographed and directed campaigns for clients ranging from Apple to Coca-Cola to Levi's and is ranked in the top 3 most awarded photographers in the Americas by Lürzer's Archive.
In 2020 Daylight BooksAn Animal’s-Eye View of Mass Extinction in Progress 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 biologist E. O. Wilson. The book was awarded the Deeper Perspectives award by the International Center For Photography.
Zelman published Isolated Gesture in 2013, a collection of stylized black and white street photography.Process magazine, 23 September 2009. Pg 48 The book was chosen for an Art Directors Club award by Albert Watson,"Watson, Albert. "Art Directors Club"". Archived from the original on 2013-05-10. Retrieved 2013-06-06.
Artweek portrays Isolated Gesture as "a cross between S. E. Hinton's The Outsiders and Dutch genre painting".Duford, Daniel. "Bil Zelman and Kirk Thompson at Oregon Center for Photography" Artweek. Feb 2008 Referencing Zelman's distinctive style, Los Angeles Times said 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 2026 Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, Medium Photo Where We Stand 2026 Blue Sky, The Fourth Decade 2023 American Photography Winner 2022 And Here We Are, Interactive Installation, PhEST, Monopoli, Italy 2021 A Nature Story, Deeper Perspectives Award, International Center For 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 2001 Street Work Nicole Dintamin Gallery, Los Angeles, California
References
External links Official Zelman Studios homepage Billboard.com Los Angeles Times Lüerzers Archive Risen Magazine PDN Photo District News Process Magazine Strobist Shutterbug