One of the best things about Rfotofolio is that it has given us the chance to meet so many wonderful photographers and to be inspired by their creativity. Rfotofolio was founded in the hopes that we could build a community of photographers and every year that proves to be the case. With the help of all of our supporters and sponsors we are able to give the Rfotofolio Grant to a fellow photographer.

Today we are pleased to announce that William Giles is the 2018 recipient of the Rfotofolio Grant.

” What frames your view ?”  Will Giles

Born in Boston to a doctor and his concert pianist wife, Will moved to London, then South Africa, and later Argentina where the family settled until forced to flee the Peron dictatorship. Will then moved back to the United States.

Will has studied and worked with many wonderful photographers including Minor White, Ansel Adams, Dorothea Lang, Beaumont Newhall, Nathan Lyons, Hollis Todd, Ralph Hattersley, Paul Caponigro, and Jerry Uelsmann. Will taught at the University of Rochester where later he was Chairman of the Department of Photography. He has taught and given workshops on both coasts.

At 83, Will works in his darkroom at home and is still taking photographs with his 4×5 camera. To quote Will’s friend, photographer and film maker Chuck Davis, Will is a seeker.

” It started when I was around three or four, the memory is very clear.  My father was a physician in South Africa and had just received one of the first X-ray machines in the country.  He didn’t know how it would work, so he gathered all of my toys and put them in a suitcase and x-rayed it.  I remember I was very upset at first and started to cry.  Then he took me into the darkroom where he developed the X-rays.  It was like magic to see my teddy bears and toys inside the suitcase on those pieces of film, as if they where in a different dimension, and I have been in love and in the dark ever since.”  William Giles as told to Rfotofolio.

Thank you to Chuck Davis for introducing us to the work of  Will GIles in 2013.

To learn more about William Giles please visit his site at William Giles.

Thank you to Freesyle Photographic Supplies for being a sponsor of this grant.

To learn more about the Rfotofolio Grant please visit The Rfotofolio Grants. 

Thank you Carol Henry for getting us a quick snap of Will.
To learn more about Carol please visit her site at Carol Henry Studio. 

Thank you to our supporters and sponsors, you make the Rfotofolio Grant possible.