Born 1945 in Lancaster.

John Hilliard is an innovative conceptual artist working in the medium of photography. He studied at Lancaster College of Art (1962-64) and St Martin’s School of Art (1964-67) where he specialised in Sculpture. While photographing sculptures and site-specific art installations he discovered that the assumed objectivity and neutrality of the camera could be creatively challenged through various camera techniques and darkroom processes and since then photography has been the central focus of his art practice.

Since 1970 Hilliard has participated regularly in group exhibitions of conceptual art throughout the UK and Europe, recent examples are the Tate Gallery exhibitions ‘Conceptual Art in Britain’ in 2016 and ‘Shape of Light: 100 Years of Photography and Abstract Art’ in 2018. He has been granted over fifty solo shows during this period, again extensively in Europe and further afield in the USA, Canada, Brazil and Japan.

Hilliard taught for a time at Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts and at the Slade School of Fine Art, University College London, serving as Professor and Head of Graduate Fine Art Media (Emeritus Professor since 2010).

Study for Barred (I)