About Bill Borgwardt
Photographer's bio:
One of the first graduates of the Photographic Technology course at NAIT, Bill Borgwardt has been involved with the media and employed in the photographic industry since 1966, including the motion picture and television industry. Originally starting out as a freelance television news photographer for CBC, and then spending several years directly employed with ITV (now Global Television), before undertaking various other photography related ventures.
As a child, Bill’s weekends were spent at the Horse Hill community hall just north east of Edmonton, listening to country bands. His dad was the president of the local community association and as such, he and Bill's mother oversaw the weekly country dances. Little Billy spent his time backstage peaking through the curtains at the band members before falling asleep on the floor behind the piano. This is where a love of country music was fostered.
Bill has always had three passions: photography, country music, and collecting Canadian antiques. His interest in photography was fostered by an world traveling uncle when he was 10 years old and in high school he was the year book photographer and "official" photographer for the school basketball teams, traveling with them throughout the province and providing weekly photos and reports for the local community newspaper. Soon he was also front row at concerts in Edmonton, photographing Roy Orbison, Jimmy Clanton, Bobby Curtola and numerous other touring acts. During the 80s he became a contributing writer and photographer in the antique industry, maintaining a column and writing features for national publications.
Bill became seriously involved in the Canadian country music industry in the early 90s. He began volunteering his photographic and organizational skills to Global Country Canada in 1996, and has worked with them since that time, helping to organize and promote various Global Country programs, concerts, and events, and has been road manager for the annual tour of Global Country Star Search winners to Nashville and the North American Country Music Associations International competition in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee since 2004.
In 1999 he began doing photography and writing for the national Canadian country music publication, Country Music News, becoming the principal photographer and Edmonton columnist from 2000 until the publication folded in March of 2012. Through him, many western Canadian emerging country artists got the first national and international exposure.
In 2006 Bill was presented with a Canadian Platinum album award by Charley Pride, for his photographic work on the CD and DVD packaging, "Charley Pride - Live In Canada".
Also in 2006 he produced the very successful Alberta Rock ‘N Roll Reunion for Global Country. The show, held in Edmonton’s Winspear Centre, in front of over 1600 people, brought together nearly 50 Alberta artists who recorded in the 1950’s and 1960’s and were instrumental in developing the rock and roll genre of music. From this show he produced, in conjunction with Jim Tustian, the Alberta Rock ‘N Roll Reunion documentary DVD, the only comprehensive record of the contributions of Alberta artists to this form of music. A copy of the DVD was requested by the National Archives of Canada for their archives.
In 2011 he was presented with the Bev Munro Award by the Association of Canadian Country Music Legends for his support of country music in Alberta and across Canada.
In 2014 Bill had the honor of having two of his photographs of Tommy Hunter used by Canada Post on the First Day Cover and booklet packaging of the Tommy Hunter commemorative postage stamp. Bill's photographs have also been published in many publications, including MacLeans magazine.
With encouragement from founding Association of Country Music in Alberta (now Country Music Alberta) CEO Marcie Hanson, Bill became the official photographer for the organization and has been maintaining an archival photo news site for the CMAB since 2012 at https://acma.smugmug.com. In 2022 the site garnered over 2.2 million photo views, just for that year.
Bill was voted the 2014 Industry Person of the Year by the members of the ACMA (now CMAB) and presented with the award in 2015.
Bill been a feature writer and photo contributor to Canadian Cowboy Country magazine for over ten years, and has also done photography for CFCW. His photo archives have been donated to the National Music Centre in Calgary and currently he is featured there in a display honoring his contribution to the Canadian country music industry.
Each year he covers well over a hundred different country music events and has covered CCMA Country Music Week since 1999, and Big Valley Jamboree since its inception in 1993.
He also produces country music videos for YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/user/cdncountryvideo/videos
Contact Bill at cdncountry@shaw.ca
Read MoreOne of the first graduates of the Photographic Technology course at NAIT, Bill Borgwardt has been involved with the media and employed in the photographic industry since 1966, including the motion picture and television industry. Originally starting out as a freelance television news photographer for CBC, and then spending several years directly employed with ITV (now Global Television), before undertaking various other photography related ventures.
As a child, Bill’s weekends were spent at the Horse Hill community hall just north east of Edmonton, listening to country bands. His dad was the president of the local community association and as such, he and Bill's mother oversaw the weekly country dances. Little Billy spent his time backstage peaking through the curtains at the band members before falling asleep on the floor behind the piano. This is where a love of country music was fostered.
Bill has always had three passions: photography, country music, and collecting Canadian antiques. His interest in photography was fostered by an world traveling uncle when he was 10 years old and in high school he was the year book photographer and "official" photographer for the school basketball teams, traveling with them throughout the province and providing weekly photos and reports for the local community newspaper. Soon he was also front row at concerts in Edmonton, photographing Roy Orbison, Jimmy Clanton, Bobby Curtola and numerous other touring acts. During the 80s he became a contributing writer and photographer in the antique industry, maintaining a column and writing features for national publications.
Bill became seriously involved in the Canadian country music industry in the early 90s. He began volunteering his photographic and organizational skills to Global Country Canada in 1996, and has worked with them since that time, helping to organize and promote various Global Country programs, concerts, and events, and has been road manager for the annual tour of Global Country Star Search winners to Nashville and the North American Country Music Associations International competition in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee since 2004.
In 1999 he began doing photography and writing for the national Canadian country music publication, Country Music News, becoming the principal photographer and Edmonton columnist from 2000 until the publication folded in March of 2012. Through him, many western Canadian emerging country artists got the first national and international exposure.
In 2006 Bill was presented with a Canadian Platinum album award by Charley Pride, for his photographic work on the CD and DVD packaging, "Charley Pride - Live In Canada".
Also in 2006 he produced the very successful Alberta Rock ‘N Roll Reunion for Global Country. The show, held in Edmonton’s Winspear Centre, in front of over 1600 people, brought together nearly 50 Alberta artists who recorded in the 1950’s and 1960’s and were instrumental in developing the rock and roll genre of music. From this show he produced, in conjunction with Jim Tustian, the Alberta Rock ‘N Roll Reunion documentary DVD, the only comprehensive record of the contributions of Alberta artists to this form of music. A copy of the DVD was requested by the National Archives of Canada for their archives.
In 2011 he was presented with the Bev Munro Award by the Association of Canadian Country Music Legends for his support of country music in Alberta and across Canada.
In 2014 Bill had the honor of having two of his photographs of Tommy Hunter used by Canada Post on the First Day Cover and booklet packaging of the Tommy Hunter commemorative postage stamp. Bill's photographs have also been published in many publications, including MacLeans magazine.
With encouragement from founding Association of Country Music in Alberta (now Country Music Alberta) CEO Marcie Hanson, Bill became the official photographer for the organization and has been maintaining an archival photo news site for the CMAB since 2012 at https://acma.smugmug.com. In 2022 the site garnered over 2.2 million photo views, just for that year.
Bill was voted the 2014 Industry Person of the Year by the members of the ACMA (now CMAB) and presented with the award in 2015.
Bill been a feature writer and photo contributor to Canadian Cowboy Country magazine for over ten years, and has also done photography for CFCW. His photo archives have been donated to the National Music Centre in Calgary and currently he is featured there in a display honoring his contribution to the Canadian country music industry.
Each year he covers well over a hundred different country music events and has covered CCMA Country Music Week since 1999, and Big Valley Jamboree since its inception in 1993.
He also produces country music videos for YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/user/cdncountryvideo/videos
Contact Bill at cdncountry@shaw.ca
