Staff Profile: Have You Met...William Atkins

For nearly two decades, University Photographer William Atkins has used his camera to capture life at GW.

William Atkins is the man behind the camera at almost every event on George Washington University's campus.

You've probably seen him before, weaving through crowds while working to find an angle to capture a moment just right.

For the past 17 years, he's dedicated himself to documenting the many moments that make up life at GW.

"Even the small things that we do here, it's important to somebody," Atkins said. "All of it, I feel, goes into documenting the history of the university."

One of his favorite photographers, Hiroshi Sugimoto, once described photos as a "fossilization of time," recording the history of life and making fossils of the present.

That's how Atkins has come to see what he does at GW.

His camera has documented world leaders and dignitaries speaking on campus, celebrities marking milestones at GW events, mayoral debates, concerts and art exhibitions. It has captured the bookends of students' time at GW, from first-year student Convocation to Commencement, as well as the countless unexpected moments in between that become part of the university's story.

It's a job where no two days look the same. And he likes that.

It keeps him on his toes as he's forced to get creative and problem solve with the variety of projects he works on.

And he likes that he gets to meet interesting people and learn new things along the way.

Photography has always been a part of Atkins' life. His father worked as a photojournalist and editor for United Press International.

Nothing made him feel more special as a kid than getting to hold his dad's cameras or going into the studio with him.

"I would see all the photos, and back in the day they used the fax machines, and I would see everything going," Atkins said. "And we'd go to the dark room and I'd get to see how film got processed."

When he was in high school, Atkins went through a phase where he always had a camera on him, the same fully manual Nikon F from his dad's studio he used to be so proud to hold.

"I would just photograph my life as I went through it," Atkins said.

When he was in his mid 20s, he decided to pursue a career in photography. Seeing where his father's work took him had long planted the idea that it was a job that would open him up to adventures.

"Most of the time during my life, he was a photo editor and not actually out in the field, but I saw all his photos, and I heard all the stories from those days. He had some wild stories," Atkins said. "He got to travel the world."

Atkins studied photography at George Mason University, expanding his technical skills while experimenting with different styles.

"I kind of went all over the place in the work I did. Originally, I wanted to be a photojournalist. I then changed my mind, and I became more of a fine arts, conceptual art, photographer," Atkins said. "Working at GW, I kind of have to grab back into almost every bit of photography that I've ever learned how to do, because every day can be different."

Even though he's spent years behind the camera, Atkins wanted to keep growing as a photographer and storyteller. And after having captured so many graduation celebrations, this past spring, it was his turn to be the one in a cap and gown out on the National Mall, celebrating his master's degree in photojournalism from the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design.

The experience expanded his storytelling skills to work with video and for his capstone project, he created the documentary, "No Training Wheels," focusing on another passion of his- motorcycles.

Atkins has been riding for over a decade now. It's how he shows up to work most days.

"It kind of changes your life. Just the way you move in the world becomes completely different," Atkins said. "I can't imagine a time in my life where I'm not riding. And that was the idea behind the documentary. Why do people ride? Why do we choose to do this dangerous thing?"

For the documentary, Atkins traveled across the region, interviewing riders locally in Washington, D.C., and heading further to places like Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and Chattanooga, Tennessee.

As he listened to everyone's stories, Atkins found a commonality through each conversation, one that highlighted a bond they all had as riders, which was a shared understanding of what riding gives them and why they keep coming back to it.

"When you're out riding a motorcycle, the feeling of it, and I want to quote from the documentary, 'It's the closest thing to flying.' It's just being at peace," Atkins said.

He said it allows him to be fully present, not experiencing things through a window, but taking in the feel of a breeze or the warmth of the sun directly.

"On a motorcycle, you are in the world," Atkins said. "You experience everything."

William Atkins stopped along the Angeles Crest Highway (California State Route 2) with his friend, Daniel Bohman to take in the views while on a trip in 2019.

He took a trip about six years ago to see as much of the country as he could on his motorcycle. He left D.C., and kept heading West until he hit California, taking photos along the way.

"The landscape, it changes. It's like almost a gradient scale," Atkins said. "You go from very green to very brown and red."

He rode through deserts, watching dust devils spin across the ground as he passed signs warning drivers to keep their windows rolled up. He took winding roads through the Blue Ridge Mountains and traveled across small towns and major cities.

And he got to capture it all on camera, the big moments and the little ones.

Just like he has been doing at GW for many years now.

"To be able to look back and know, for almost two decades, I've helped keep the historical record of this place, I definitely have a good sense of pride in that," Atkins said. "And I hope that future generations going forward will look back and see this work and know what it was like here."

Meet William Atkins:

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