Bill Burke

Bill Burke (b. 1943) was born in Milford, Connecticut and received a B.A. in Art History from Middlebury College and a B.F.A. and M.F.A. in Photography from Rhode Island School Of Design.  For over twenty years, Burke concentrated on making photographs in Indochina. His travels took him on journeys through the political, cultural and social traditions and upheavals of these foreign lands. Burke’s images are not objective political documentary, but rather humane portraits.

Most recently, Bill completed a project entitled DESTRUKTO which satirizes the contemporary art scene while paying tribute to Hunter S Thompson, Ant Farm, Andy Warhol, and Robert Capa.

Burke has received grants from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, the Ford Foundation and the Massachusetts Council on the Arts, as well as two artist’s fellowships from the National Endowment of the Arts.  His publications include I Want To Take Pictures, 1987; Bill-Burke-Portraits, 1987; They Shall Cast out the Demons, 1983; Mine Fields, 1995; and most recently Autrefois Maison Privee, 2004.

Burke’s work is in the collections of the J. Paul Getty Museum; The Museum of Modern Art, New York and San Francisco; the Smithsonian Institute Museum of American Art; and the International Museum of Photography at George Eastman House.

Currently, Bill Burke teaches photography at the School of Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.