Bill Frakes
Encyclopedia
Bill Frakes is an American photographer who has been on the masthead of Sports Illustrated
since 1993. In 2008, he cofounded Straw Hat Visuals, a Southern Media Company. Bill was born and raised in the ranch country of western Nebraska
. He received his bachelor's degree
in Economics
from Arizona State University
, earned a Journalism
degree from the University of Kansas
, and went to law school
at the University of Mississippi
. Currently, he is based out of North Florida
.
career at the Miami Herald where he worked from 1979 to 1992, covering a wide range of subjects from local stories to politics
in Cuba
. He began shooting for Sports Illustrated
in 1983. He has worked in more than 125 countries for a wide variety of editorial and advertising
clients.
His advertising clients include Amway Global, Apple, Champion, CocaCola
, IBM
, Isleworth, Kodak, Manfrotto
, Nike
, Nikon
, Reebok
and Stryker. Editorially his work has appeared in virtually every major general interest publication in the world. Additionally, he directs music video
s and commercial television spots.
He has taught at the University of Miami
, the University of Florida
and the University of Kansas as an adjunct professor and lecturer
. Between 2005-2010, he lectured at more than 100 universities discussing multimedia
and photojournalism
.
Bill also travels the world conducting workshops in partnership with Nikon, Apple and the Manfrotto School of Xcellence. He has given hundreds of interviews for university photojournalism programs, such as James Madison University, and many national and international photography publications.
In 2010, he was on the Jury of World Press Photo
.
Currently, Bill along with his company, Straw Hat Visuals, is on the forefront of the video DSLR movement, integrating stills, audio and video to create dynamic stories which can be viewed in multiple ways.
Bill's work is regularly featured in photography news magazine, including online photojournalism journal Burn Magazine, the British Journal of Photography
, and the Photo District News (PDN).
for Public Service
for their coverage of Hurricane Andrew
. In 2004, he won the National Press Photographers Association
(NPPA) Best of Photojournalism Award for his sports portfolio. He has also been honored by the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award
s for reporting on the disadvantaged and by the Overseas Press Club
for distinguished foreign reporting. He was awarded the Gold Medal by World Press Photo. He has received hundreds of national and international awards for his work.
Sports Illustrated
Sports Illustrated is an American sports media company owned by media conglomerate Time Warner. Its self titled magazine has over 3.5 million subscribers and is read by 23 million adults each week, including over 18 million men. It was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the...
since 1993. In 2008, he cofounded Straw Hat Visuals, a Southern Media Company. Bill was born and raised in the ranch country of western Nebraska
Nebraska
Nebraska is a state on the Great Plains of the Midwestern United States. The state's capital is Lincoln and its largest city is Omaha, on the Missouri River....
. He received his bachelor's degree
Bachelor's degree
A bachelor's degree is usually an academic degree awarded for an undergraduate course or major that generally lasts for three or four years, but can range anywhere from two to six years depending on the region of the world...
in Economics
Economics
Economics is the social science that analyzes the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. The term economics comes from the Ancient Greek from + , hence "rules of the house"...
from Arizona State University
Arizona State University
Arizona State University is a public research university located in the Phoenix Metropolitan Area of the State of Arizona...
, earned a Journalism
Journalism
Journalism is the practice of investigation and reporting of events, issues and trends to a broad audience in a timely fashion. Though there are many variations of journalism, the ideal is to inform the intended audience. Along with covering organizations and institutions such as government and...
degree from the University of Kansas
University of Kansas
The University of Kansas is a public research university and the largest university in the state of Kansas. KU campuses are located in Lawrence, Wichita, Overland Park, and Kansas City, Kansas with the main campus being located in Lawrence on Mount Oread, the highest point in Lawrence. The...
, and went to law school
Law school
A law school is an institution specializing in legal education.- Law degrees :- Canada :...
at the University of Mississippi
University of Mississippi
The University of Mississippi, also known as Ole Miss, is a public, coeducational research university located in Oxford, Mississippi. Founded in 1844, the school is composed of the main campus in Oxford, four branch campuses located in Booneville, Grenada, Tupelo, and Southaven as well as the...
. Currently, he is based out of North Florida
North Florida
North Florida refers to the northernmost part of the U.S. state of Florida, including some counties that border the state of Georgia. It also borders the Big Bend with Madison County and Taylor County to the east and the Central Florida region to its south....
.
Work and Career
Bill Frakes started his photographyPhotography
Photography is the art, science and practice of creating durable images by recording light or other electromagnetic radiation, either electronically by means of an image sensor or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film...
career at the Miami Herald where he worked from 1979 to 1992, covering a wide range of subjects from local stories to politics
Politics
Politics is a process by which groups of people make collective decisions. The term is generally applied to the art or science of running governmental or state affairs, including behavior within civil governments, but also applies to institutions, fields, and special interest groups such as the...
in Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
. He began shooting for Sports Illustrated
Sports Illustrated
Sports Illustrated is an American sports media company owned by media conglomerate Time Warner. Its self titled magazine has over 3.5 million subscribers and is read by 23 million adults each week, including over 18 million men. It was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the...
in 1983. He has worked in more than 125 countries for a wide variety of editorial and advertising
Advertising
Advertising is a form of communication used to persuade an audience to take some action with respect to products, ideas, or services. Most commonly, the desired result is to drive consumer behavior with respect to a commercial offering, although political and ideological advertising is also common...
clients.
His advertising clients include Amway Global, Apple, Champion, CocaCola
The Coca-Cola Company
The Coca-Cola Company is an American multinational beverage corporation and manufacturer, retailer and marketer of non-alcoholic beverage concentrates and syrups. The company is best known for its flagship product Coca-Cola, invented in 1886 by pharmacist John Stith Pemberton in Columbus, Georgia...
, IBM
IBM
International Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas...
, Isleworth, Kodak, Manfrotto
Manfrotto Group
Manfrotto is a brand manufactured by Lino Manfrotto + Co. Spa, a company headquartered in Bassano del Grappa, Italy. Manfrotto is a worldwide leading brand in the manufacturing of camera and lighting supports. Manfrotto is owned by the UK company The Vitec Group, which purchased Lino Manfrotto +...
, Nike
Nike, Inc.
Nike, Inc. is a major publicly traded sportswear and equipment supplier based in the United States. The company is headquartered near Beaverton, Oregon, which is part of the Portland metropolitan area...
, Nikon
Nikon
, also known as just Nikon, is a multinational corporation headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, specializing in optics and imaging. Its products include cameras, binoculars, microscopes, measurement instruments, and the steppers used in the photolithography steps of semiconductor fabrication, of which...
, Reebok
Reebok
Reebok International Limited, a subsidiary of the German sportswear company Adidas since 2005, is a producer of Athletic shoes, apparel, and accessories. The name comes from the Afrikaans spelling of rhebok, a type of African antelope or gazelle...
and Stryker. Editorially his work has appeared in virtually every major general interest publication in the world. Additionally, he directs music video
Music video
A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...
s and commercial television spots.
He has taught at the University of Miami
University of Miami
The University of Miami is a private, non-sectarian university founded in 1925 with its main campus in Coral Gables, Florida, a medical campus in Miami city proper at Civic Center, and an oceanographic research facility on Virginia Key., the university currently enrolls 15,629 students in 12...
, the University of Florida
University of Florida
The University of Florida is an American public land-grant, sea-grant, and space-grant research university located on a campus in Gainesville, Florida. The university traces its historical origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its present Gainesville campus since September 1906...
and the University of Kansas as an adjunct professor and lecturer
Lecturer
Lecturer is an academic rank. In the United Kingdom, lecturer is a position at a university or similar institution, often held by academics in their early career stages, who lead research groups and supervise research students, as well as teach...
. Between 2005-2010, he lectured at more than 100 universities discussing multimedia
Multimedia
Multimedia is media and content that uses a combination of different content forms. The term can be used as a noun or as an adjective describing a medium as having multiple content forms. The term is used in contrast to media which use only rudimentary computer display such as text-only, or...
and photojournalism
Photojournalism
Photojournalism is a particular form of journalism that creates images in order to tell a news story. It is now usually understood to refer only to still images, but in some cases the term also refers to video used in broadcast journalism...
.
Bill also travels the world conducting workshops in partnership with Nikon, Apple and the Manfrotto School of Xcellence. He has given hundreds of interviews for university photojournalism programs, such as James Madison University, and many national and international photography publications.
In 2010, he was on the Jury of World Press Photo
World Press Photo
World Press Photo is an independent, non-profit organization based in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Founded in 1955 the organization is known for holding the world's largest and most prestigious annual press photography contest....
.
Currently, Bill along with his company, Straw Hat Visuals, is on the forefront of the video DSLR movement, integrating stills, audio and video to create dynamic stories which can be viewed in multiple ways.
Bill's work is regularly featured in photography news magazine, including online photojournalism journal Burn Magazine, the British Journal of Photography
British Journal of Photography
The British Journal of Photography is a magazine about photography publishing in-depth articles, profiles of photographs, analyses, and techological reviews.-History:...
, and the Photo District News (PDN).
Awards and honors
Bill won the coveted Newspaper Photographer of the Year award in the prestigious Pictures of the Year International competition. He was a member of the Miami Herald staff that won the Pulitzer PrizePulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...
for Public Service
Pulitzer Prize for Public Service
The Pulitzer Prize for Public Service has been awarded since 1918 for a distinguished example of meritorious public service by a newspaper or news site through the use of its journalistic resources. Those resources, as well as reporting, may include editorials, cartoons, photographs, graphics,...
for their coverage of Hurricane Andrew
Hurricane Andrew
Hurricane Andrew was the third Category 5 hurricane to make landfall in the United States, after the Labor Day Hurricane of 1935 and Hurricane Camille in 1969. Andrew was the first named storm and only major hurricane of the otherwise inactive 1992 Atlantic hurricane season...
. In 2004, he won the National Press Photographers Association
National Press Photographers Association
NPPA is the acronym for the National Press Photographers Association, founded in 1947. The organization is based in Durham, North Carolina and its mostly made up of still photographers, television videographers, editors, and students in the journalism field...
(NPPA) Best of Photojournalism Award for his sports portfolio. He has also been honored by the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award
Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award
The Robert F. Kennedy Awards for Excellence in Journalism is journalisms award named after Robert F. Kennedy and awarded by the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights. The annual awards are issued in several categories and were established in December 1968 by a group of reporters who...
s for reporting on the disadvantaged and by the Overseas Press Club
Overseas Press Club
The Overseas Press Club of America was founded in 1939 in New York City by a group of foreign correspondents. The wire service reporter Carol Weld was a founding member...
for distinguished foreign reporting. He was awarded the Gold Medal by World Press Photo. He has received hundreds of national and international awards for his work.
External links
- http://www.billfrakes.com/
- http://www.strawhatvisuals.com/
- http://strawhatvisuals.blogspot.com/