William Albert Allard is a photographer of people. One of the few photographers of his generation whose entire professional body of work is in color, he has contributed to National Geographic Society publications since 1964 as a staff, freelance and contract photographer and writer. Over his career at National Geographic, William has contributed to 42 articles as a photographer as well as a number of National Geographic books.  He has written eight articles for the magazine. In addition to National Geographic, William has been published in most major USA and European publications and has photographed in 25 countries. Allard has published five highly acclaimed books. His first, Vanishing Breed, which contains photographs and writings about the American cowboy, was nominated for the American Book Award and received the Wrangler Western Heritage Award for Outstanding Western Art Book of 1982.  Allard is currently working on a new book titled William Albert Allard: Five Decades.  It is a retrospective, to be published by National Geographic Books in 2010.  The son of a Swedish immigrant, William was born in Minneapolis in 1937 and studied at the Minneapolis School of Fine Arts and the University of Minnesota..