Hal Noss:
    a global childhood + photo education + extensive experience
     = distinct & powerful documentary photography world-wide

       I was born and raised as an American citizen and a Gbaya village & bush kid in Cameroon, an awsome West African country with 233 uniquely different languages. I grew up in the midst of aid, conservation, development, eduction, health, linguistics, and Christian ministry programs, under a friendly Islamic government. I learned Gbaya and English as first languages, French in local primary schools, and Pidgin-English on the streets of Nigeria. With life-long experiences in multiple languages, cultures, religions, and socio-economic goals, I also grew up explaining people to people.

       My interest in photography developed when I was 12 years old, after my father purchased an enlarger from a departing Peace Corps volunteer and we figured out how to process & print by pure trial and error. When someone in highschool discovered that I could create photographs, I was given a camera and asked to shoot for the yearbook. When they found out I could process and print, they turned the school darkroom over to me. Between my assignments for the yearbook I shot my first professional "paid" assignment, of an elegant Nigerian birthday party; and my first documentary evidence photos of a rogue wounded lion that charged me.

       I explored career opportunities while working as a local hire for the United States Agency for International Development in Cameroon (click to view recommendation) from 1985 to 1986. Even though aid, development, conservation, education, and ministry programs have always been of primary importance, it became apparent that I might do the most good for all, by improving communication and understanding between the different, yet similar, peoples that I understood. I re-confirmed my skills in the fine-arts, and selected photography as the most powerful communication medium and global cross-cultural language that I could use. I studied the feasibility of a photography career with "intro to" and "documentary photography" classes, then moved to Washington D.C. to continue my education.

       I worked my way through the Corcoran School of Art with jobs in local photography businesses, graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts Photography degree (click to view diploma) in 1991, and have been a working photographer ever since. With ever-growing photo experience that now includes: audio, video, text, teaching, management, and graphic design, the quality of my images and of the end products I deliver keeps getting better. My original goal: to build bridges between peoples using photography, has never changed.

       Clients and credits include: the American Museum of Natural History, American Zoo and Aquarium Association, Bushmeat Crisis Task Force, Minnesota Department of Education, United Bible Societies, Walt Disney's Animal Kingdom, World Relief, Wildlife Conservation Society, and many many more.

       Exhibitions include: solo, group, & in absentia; local, traveling, national, international, and permanent.