Celebrating diversity and honoring the ethnic tapestry of Westfield, Journey Stories: Faces of Westfield showcases the photography of Montgomery resident, Bill Hughes. The exhibit, along with its complementary programming, aims to personalize the contributions and challenges of individuals who have chosen Westfield as their home and are integral members of our community.
Bill Hughes was introduced to photography at the age of eight when he learned to mix chemicals and develop film in his father’s portrait studio in Lumberton, North Carolina, while observing his father, who also worked for the Associated Press as a photographer.
After graduating from high school, he traveled as a musician in a US Navy Band throughout the Far East. He attended the University of Oregon and the University of Michigan, ultimately earning a BA in Music Education from Westfield State University. Later, he worked in a variety of jobs, including as a New York City taxi driver, a musician in off-off Broadway theater, and as a movie extra for “spaghetti westerns” in Almeria, Spain, in 1969.
In the early 1990s, he began photographing the Latino community in the North End of Springfield, Massachusetts, creating the “Palante” series while studying with photographer Robert Aller at Holyoke Community College. His work was later influenced by the late photographer, historian, critic, and writer Ben Lifson, and later by Frank Ward, also a professor of photography at Holyoke Community College.
In recent years, he has photographed on the streets of Berlin, Prague, Paris, the Greek island of Hydra, New York City, and Venice Beach, California, visiting yearly.
Hughes lives in Montgomery, Massachusetts, with his wife, where he works in his private studio.
Journey Stories is produced by Westfield on Weekends Inc. and is funded in part with a grant from the Westfield Cultural Council, a local program of the Massachusetts Cultural Council.
