Bill Coates
Artist Overview

My entrance into photography was through the backdoor. My day job for many years has been writing for newspapers. That included a number of years as a freelance writer, where I began taking pictures to accompany my stories. One summer my father - since passed away - gave each of his kids about $1500 to $2000. That was just enough to fix the air conditionner on the old Saturn. Or buy the then all-new Nikon D100. I decided to sweat it out and buy the Nikon. I still use it. It's a solid workhorse.

One spring a few years back, I took the camera with me on hikes around South Mountain in Phoenix. It was one of the wettest springs on record. The plants came to life with color and I snapped away. Jim, my brother and Copper Mine Picture Cafe gallery owner, asked if I'd like to show the pictures. I agreed. After all, it was a pretty good deal for me. I just took the pictures. He printed them, marketed them and displayed them.

The closest I've had to formal training was a photojournalism class at the University of Arizona, many years ago. The rest is pretty much experience and experiment.

I still write. I have completed two books of fiction. Both are unpublished, but I have an agent trying to change that.

Writing - pure writing - can be be an isolating exercise. Photography draws me out of that. To take pictures, I have to get out and go somewhere. And photography in the digital age provides the kind of instant gratification you won't find from writing. At the push of a button, I can see if a picture is truely worth a thousand words. - Bill Coates