Chris Hill (born 25 December 1946) is a photographer from Belfast, Northern Ireland. [1]
Born on 25 December 1946 he was the second child to parents Verner and Margaret Hill. He has two brothers, Eric and Charles and one sister, Elizabeth.
Although training to go into the family's clothing business, he developed an early passion for photography at the age of 14, often taking photographs of bands at school dances and selling prints to his friends the next day.
He once photographed The Beatles and sold the pictures around the local schools, making himself "a small fortune" [2]
He was educated at the Royal Belfast Academical Institution Prep school Inchmarlo and then RBAI itself.
Upon leaving school he became a member of the Old Boy association Instonians and a regular player for their rugby team up until his mid-thirties.
In 1978 he left the family firm to set up Christopher Hill Photographic, specialising in sports and theatre photography, and later all aspects of commercial photography including advertising, fashion, still life and architectural.
Winning several awards [1] boosted his career, including Sports Photograph of the Year 1977 & 1978, from the Sports Council of Northern Ireland
But it is in his landscape photography that Hill has really made a name for himself, regularly shooting assignments for the National Trust and the Northern Ireland Tourist Board.
Over the years has shot many beautiful photographs of Ireland, with which he started one of Ireland's leading photographic libraries: Scenic Ireland.
The library, the largest independent photographic library in Ireland, now contains over 13,000 images of Irish landscapes and cityscapes.
In December, 2008 with designer Colin McCadden he launched the first in his book series entitled "Scenic Ireland," covering the province of Ulster.
Queen's University Belfast officially the Queen's University of Belfast, is a public research university in Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom. The university received its charter in 1845 as "Queen's College, Belfast" and opened four years later.
David Octavius Hill was a Scottish painter, photographer and arts activist. He formed Hill & Adamson studio with the engineer and photographer Robert Adamson between 1843 and 1847 to pioneer many aspects of photography in Scotland.
Robin Henderson Thompson was a rugby union international for Ireland, a former British Lions captain and rugby league player.
Francis Frith was an English photographer of the Middle East and many towns in the United Kingdom. Frith was born in Chesterfield, Derbyshire, attending Quaker schools at Ackworth and Quaker Camp Hill in Birmingham, before he started in the cutlery business. He suffered a nervous breakdown in 1843, recuperating over the next two years. In 1850 he started a photographic studio in Liverpool, known as Frith & Hayward. A successful grocer, and later, printer, Frith fostered an interest in photography, becoming a founding member of the Liverpool Photographic Society in 1853. Frith sold his companies in 1855 in order to dedicate himself entirely to photography. He journeyed to the Middle East on three occasions, the first of which was a trip to Egypt in 1856 with very large cameras. He used the collodion process, a major technical achievement in hot and dusty conditions.
The Royal Belfast Academical Institution is an independent grammar school in Belfast, Northern Ireland. With the support of Belfast's leading reformers and democrats, it opened its doors in 1814. Until 1849, when it was superseded by what today is Queen's University, the institution pioneered Belfast's first programme of collegiate education. Locally referred to as Inst, the modern school educates boys from ages 11 to 18. It is one of the eight Northern Irish schools represented on the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference. The school occupies an 18-acre site in the centre of the city on which its first buildings were erected.
Paul Seawright is a Northern Irish artist. He is the professor of photography and the Deputy Vice Chancellor at Ulster University in Belfast/Derry/Coleraine. Seawright lives in his birthplace of Belfast.
The Ulster Senior Cup is a knock-out competition for senior rugby union teams in the province of Ulster. It is administered by Ulster Rugby.
Instonians is a sports club based in Belfast, Northern Ireland, that incorporates rugby union, men's and ladies' hockey and cricket sections. There is also a golf society that plays under the Instonians name.
John Harold Hewitt was perhaps the most significant Belfast poet to emerge before the 1960s generation of Northern Irish poets that included Seamus Heaney, Derek Mahon and Michael Longley. He was appointed the first writer-in-residence at Queen's University Belfast in 1976. His collections include The Day of the Corncrake (1969) and Out of My Time: Poems 1969 to 1974 (1974). He was also made a Freeman of the City of Belfast in 1983, and was awarded honorary doctorates by the University of Ulster and Queen's University Belfast.
Watching and playing sports is an important part of culture in Belfast, Northern Ireland where almost six out of ten (59%) of the adult population regularly participate in one or more sports. Belfast has several notable sports teams playing a diverse variety of sports including football, rugby, traditional Irish Gaelic games, and North American sports such as American football and ice hockey (at the SSE Arena where the multiple time Elite Ice Hockey League champion Belfast Giants are based. The Belfast Marathon is run annually on May Day, and attracted 14,300 participants in 2007. Cycling, triathlon and athletics are also popular as both participation and spectator sports, with the first two stages of the 2014 Giro d'Italia starting from Belfast City Centre, and the annual high profile Belfast International Cross Country event being held in the grounds of Stormont Castle every year until 2009. The Stormont Estate is also one of the four home grounds for the Ireland cricket team, alongside Bready, Malahide and Clontarf, and also hosts the Northern Cricket Union provincial teams.
Donovan Wylie is an Irish photographer from Northern Ireland, based in Belfast. His work chronicles what he calls "the concept of vision as power in the architecture of contemporary conflict" – prison, army watchtowers and outposts, and listening stations – "merging documentary and art photography".
Christopher Horace Steele-Perkins is a British photographer and member of Magnum Photos, best known for his depictions of Africa, Afghanistan, England, Northern Ireland, and Japan.
Steve Dunwell is an American photographer noted for his color photographs of urban and scenic landscapes.
John Blakemore, is an English photographer who has worked in documentary, landscape, still life and hand made books. He taught the medium full time from 1970.
Daniel Meadows is an English photographer turned maker of digital stories, and a teacher of photography turned teacher of participatory media.
Peter Wickens Fry was a pioneering English amateur photographer, although professionally he was a London solicitor. In the early 1850s, Fry worked with Frederick Scott Archer, assisting him in the early experiments of the wet collodion process. He was also active in helping Roger Fenton to set up the Royal Photographic Society in 1853. Several of his photographs are in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.
Mark Gleghorne is a field hockey player from Northern Ireland who has represented Ireland, England and Great Britain at international level. He represented Great Britain at the 2016 Summer Olympics. Gleghorne was a member of the England teams that won the bronze medals at the 2014 and 2018 Commonwealth Games and at the 2017 Men's EuroHockey Nations Championship. He also represented England at the 2014 and 2018 Men's Hockey World Cups. At club level, Gleghorne was a member of the Instonians team that won the Irish Senior Cup in both 2002 and 2004. He was also a member of the Punjab Warriors team that won the 2016 Hockey India League title. Gleghorne is a member of a family of field hockey internationals. His younger brother, Paul, is an Ireland international. Two of his aunts, Margaret Gleghorne and Jackie McWilliams, were also Ireland and Great Britain women's internationals.
Aaron Dickson is a Northern Irish artist specialising in Photography. He lives in his birthplace of Northern Ireland.
Roger Taylor, MVO born 1940, is a curator, photographic historian, and educator specialising in nineteenth century British photography and its social and cultural history. He is Professor Emeritus of Photographic History at De Montfort University.
William Robert Gordon HRUA was an influential Northern Irish landscape and portrait painter, and an educator. He was a founding member of the Ulster Arts Club and the Ulster Literary Theatre.