Following a passion for truth in storytelling, Hilary graduated from the University of Western Ontario in 1998 with a Bachelor of Arts in Film and then from Sheridan College with a post-graduate diploma in Journalism.
Photography became Hilary’s storytelling tool, allowing her to weave tales of individuality and relationships through impactful imagery. With her keen business skills and passion for outstanding client service, One for the Wall quickly flourished into a successful full-time enterprise and continues to become stronger with each passing season. In the last fifteen years, Hilary has been privileged to photograph over 5,000 families.
In 2011, she began to branch her business into commercial and corporate photography, creating imagery for promotional and marketing purposes, as well as executive and professional profile portraits. Hilary has quickly become known in the thriving local business community as the first choice for both natural light and studio light photography. Alongside her corporate work, she has also created a strong portfolio of actors, singers, speakers and other arts and entertainment professionals, who are drawn to her dramatic lighting and creative composition.
A proud supporter of the arts, Hilary works with KW Glee, making the amazing young singers feel like the rock stars they are, with creative headshots, concert stills and backstage action shots. Hilary is also the official photographer for Drayton Entertainment in Cambridge, Ontario.
For the past nine years, Hilary has poured her boundless energy into creating an annual series of images for the Waterloo-Wellington Down Syndrome Society and more recently, she has partnered with the Canadian Down Syndrome Society to create national awareness campaigns. Her projects ’31 Days, 31 Faces’, ‘See Me’, ‘Better with You’, ‘Who do You Love?’, ‘More to Me’, ‘Living with Purpose’, ‘Who We Are’, ‘Believe With Me’, ‘Love Means’, ‘Now I Know’, ‘Here I Am’ and ‘Just Ask Me’ have been featured by local, national and international media, including People Magazine and Breakfast Television, spotlighting these wonderful children and adults and their families and their beautiful and unique perspectives on the world. Her commitment to social change through photography is also reflected in the photo series ‘Boxed’, a collaboration with photojournalist Hannah Yoon that brings attention to transgender and non-binary youths in the KW region.
Hilary was awarded the Rogers K-W Oktoberfest Woman of the Year in the Arts for 2018. In May 2014, she was awarded Photographer of the Year by the National Association of Professional Child Photographers (NAPCP), earning one of her winning images a place on a Times Square billboard in New York City. She has received international acclaim for her colourful and emotion-filled work, having images that have been selected in the Rangefinder Portrait Competition 2017, VOICE Collection 2015 + 2016 and the National Association of Professional Child Photographers’ International Image Competition.
Hilary has become a respected entrepreneurial educator sharing her passion for photography and enterprise, offering individualized Business Mentoring to photographers throughout Canada and the US. She also offers photography courses for kids sponsored by Nikon Canada, who provided cameras for the children to use during the course. She is committed to giving children a positive first experience in the world of photography and to inspiring and valuing their unique eye for the world around them.
Click here for more about Hilary and One For The Wall Photography.
