Bill Horne - Photographer

Specialist in Advertising, Fashion and Hotel Photography

Bill Horne Bio

Born in Scotland in 1944, moving in 1948, Bill was raised and educated in London completing his studies in 1968 at the Harrow School of Photography.  He passed his final City and Guilds exams but with final year exams of the more important BIPP exams just a month away, he was offered a job with a top fashion studio in Chelsea. The decision he took was to shape his future over the next 40 years. Within a week, he was assisting on his first fashion shoot in Spain with 4 female models shooting 5x4 sheet film on a Gandolfi. With only 4 sheets per shot you had to get it right! In those days all the catalogue shoots were shot on sheet film as the layouts were made up and retouched page size by hand.

Over the next ten years Bill specialized in fashion, still life and travel photography, first as an assistant finishing his apprenticeship with London studios, then in his own studio in Edinburgh.

At the beginning of eighties, during 5 year sabbatical in France with his wife Gillian and two children, Bill rarely looked at a camera, turning his “skills” to more hands on work such as carpentry, stone masonry and occasional wine tasting! With no funds and sporadic jobs, the family struggled at times to maintain any sort of lifestyle, but perseverance and many helping hands from neighbours and new friends established a love of the country and region that was to remain, even during an extended absence which begun for Bill in 1983, with his return to the London advertising scene and a photographer position with another London agency, commuting between home and London until 1985.

However, having developed a taste for working for themselves  it was not long, just over 2 years in fact, Bill and Gillian decided to set up their own business once more, again in Scotland, but this time in the booming city of Glasgow. However for them both there was only one way to do it, in a completely new 3000sq ft drive-in studio in central Scotland, and then in a church hall they bought and restored  in Govan Glasgow.  Bill gained a loyal client following and was rewarded with a highly successful period during which time he produced some of his most exciting and creative work.

The love of France and the children, now all living in France, pulled at the heartstrings and they bought a farmhouse barely 10 minutes from their original home and embarked on restoration projects and now complete they have moved to the Mediterranean town of Beziers

Bill, however, remained faithful to his photographic work and continued to commute between Glasgow and France until settling permanently. He continues to do advertising and fashion work for clients in the UK and now uses his 40 years of experience on a new passion: Digital Photographic Art which can be seen on his dedicated web site www.galeriehorne.com.

His advertising , fashion and hotel work can be viewed on his professional photographic web site at www.billhorne-photographer.com.