About John Hills Photography


John Hills was born in Jamaica, educated in England and calls Hawaii and India his home. Moving from London to California he started working as a professional photographer in 1974 when Olympus lent him two of their newly-launched OM1 SLRs. From his studio in Mill Valley shooting for ad agencies with Nikons and Hasselblads was bread and butter business but his true passion was projected multi media which he called "painting with light". In one assignment for Star Wars producers Meredith and Gary Kurtz, John Hills created a series of live audio visual laser and photography shows, the "Sounds of Space" staged with an orchestra conducted by John Williams, composer of the Star Wars soundtrack.

John Hills Photographer
Photographer John Hills with model DeBorah Hoopingarner
      Photo by Tony Novak Clifford

Twenty years before Photoshop, John Hills started combining slide imagery: "Image 1 + Image 2 = Image 3". These were double exposures and transparency sandwiches, a technique he shared with Ernst Haas who became a friend and inspiration.

John Hills also taught photography classes called "The Joy of Seeing" and studied glamor photography with Peter Gowland, inventor of the 4x5 format Gowlandflex camera.

Living on Maui for 30 years John Hills was editor-in-chief of three magazines, winning numerous awards for journalism and photography. Having worked in New Delhi for Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in the early seventies, India's charms lured him back and South India became his favorite photographic canvas.

With his daughter Angelina Hills following in her father's footsteps as one of Hawaii's busiest photographers John now travels continuously, specializing in photojournalism and fine art.


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All photographs and text within John Hills Photography are copyright © John Hills and are presented for web browser viewing only. Nothing contained within this site may be reproduced, downloaded, stored, copied, manipulated, altered, or used in any form without prior written permission from John Hills. Using any image as the base for another illustration or graphic content, including photography, is a violation of copyright and intellectual property laws. Violation of copyright will be actively prosecuted. We will always accommodate your budget. Just contact us:)