Thomas Bill Hardt (born 2 May 1937 in Chemnitz) is a German photographer and writer. He was especially known in the GDR by his photos from Vietnam and Palestine. Bill Hardt was trained from 1951 to 1954, the photographer with his mother Mary Schmid Bill Hardt and studied until 1957 at the College of Applied Arts in Magdeburg. As a working photographer in lignite mining and briquette Großkayna 1957-58 he qualified as a master photo and was publisher until 1959 photographer of the picture postcard publisher and home to Reichenbach in the Vogtland. 1959 to 1963 he studied at the School of Visual Arts (HGB) in Leipzig with a degree in photo-graphic. In 1962 he became a member of the Association of German Journalists from 1963 to 1971 and worked as a freelance photographer. In 1968 he joined the SED. 1972 to 1981 he was group leader at the German Advertising Agency (DEWAG) and Berlin from 1982 to 1989 head of the studio Billhardt from the publisher for agitation and visual aids. Since 1989, Bill Hardt member of the German Journalists' Association and from 1990 until 2001 he was a member of the German Society of Photography. Since 1990 he is also a member of the Association of Freelance Photo Designers Billhardt 1969 was awarded the Art Prize of the GDR, in 1987 the National Prize of the GDR. He has had numerous international photographic exhibitions, etc. UNICEF's exhibition "Children of the World" in New York, 1989. In April 2005 he was traveling and UNICEF Philippines from April 2008 to November 2008 he has worked for UNICEF projects in Indonesia, Cambodia and China. Bill Hardt sees himself more as art than as a political photographer. His archive is held by 1999 of Camera Work. Thomas Billhardt is married and has two children. His son Bill Steffen Hardt is also a photographer. Thomas Billhardt lived in Italy until 2008 and in Berlin. Now he is living in Kleinmachnow.Source:http://www.artfinding.com/Biography/Billhardt-Thomas/8278.html