Selections from the Collection

The images in this selection are from various projects including the book, ‘William Albert Allard: Five Decades (Focal Point, 2010)’, which spans Bill’s 50-year career as a contributing photographer to National Geographic. Throughout his tenure as a photographer he has worked in more than 30 countries. This work represents images made in the United States, Canada, Italy, France and Peru.

In addition, this selection includes work made since the late 1960s, the result of Allard’s continuing love affair with the American West.

He says, “Over the years I tried to find subjects out West that I could photograph and perhaps write about for National Geographic magazine, for other magazines, and for myself. During all this time I worked abroad as well, in more than thirty different countries, but the West kept drawing me to its vastness, its light, and its people. It would be fair to say that my early attraction out West centered on two subjects: the American cowboy in Montana, Nevada, Texas, and Wyoming, where ever the good ones are, and the Hutterites of Montana. My relationship with the Hutterites started in 1969 and has grown to family-like closeness. I am very much at home with some of them not just as subjects but also as treasured friends. My initial attraction to the subject of the cowboy was probably based on an apparent – although arguable – independence; the ability to simply move on when it seems to be the thing to do, and the desire to do things right. That, and our shared appreciation for a good quality hat. No good cowboy wears a bad hat and I have always prided myself as being a good hat man.”