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Outdoor Pursuit (cont.)

Bill's background, like his photography, contains an equal measure of art and adventure. "I was surrounded by art growing up," he says. "My mom's an artist, and I took art and art history classes. They tuned me into what I like. I can view a scene and think, yes, that's what I like—those colors, that composition. It's no accident that I found myself in the southwest [he lives in Dolores, CO]. It has beautiful light, amazing landscapes, huge open areas." And what he likes, he shows us in his photographs. "There are a couple of different levels working together: the location; the implication or depiction of the challenge; the amazing backgrounds and settings; and there's a lot of mystery, too. All of those are, I think, the elements of good photojournalism."

Bill grew up in Europe, and Alpine skiing was his first outdoor activity—"I've been skiing since I was nine or ten years old." It was in college that he realized the camera was a great way to document his travels and climbing adventures. "Photography was a way to express what my trips were all about."

A three-month trip after his freshman year took him and some friends to Turkey. "It was during the Iranian hostage crisis," he says, "and we went to the Iranian border and asked about getting into the country. That's what you do when you're 20—everything is, 'Let's go for it!' We were refused entry, so we backtracked, parked our vehicles and decided to climb Mt. Ararat. We were on a climbing trip, it was a mountain, so we decided to do it. It was illegal, of course, and we knew it, but we figured we'd test the security forces. We put on day packs and set off. About 45 minutes out a detachment of well-armed Turkish soldiers came jogging up behind us. They wanted to know what our intentions were. We told them we were on a day hike, and one guy said, 'You're on the border of Turkey, Iran and Russia. This is not a good place to go hiking.' So we went off to climb Suphan Dag." The trip was pivotal for Bill. "I realized then that photography, journalism, climbing, adventure—that was really what I wanted to do."

Although he'll have a camera with him, he says he still often goes hiking, climbing and kayaking "just for the love of it, or just because there's a place I want to explore or something I want to do."

To see more of Bill's work visit his website at www.billhatcher.com.