David Hilliard (American, b.1964) is a Contemporary photographer known for his panoramic photographs. Hilliard was born in Lowell, MA, and received a BFA from the Massachusetts College of Art, before going on to earn an MFA from Yale University.

His photographs are usually triptychs or larger compositions, using vibrantly colored subjects. Panel by panel, Hilliard shifts the focal plane of the subject in his photographs. These photographs can be viewed as singular pieces or as a series, much like a film. He often uses physical distance between subjects to illustrate emotional distance to the viewer. Hilliard draws upon his own tensions, fears, and conflicting emotions about his sexuality to deliver photographs that speak universally. He arranges his subjects so that one single photograph can represent the passage of time. One of his better-known works is the four-panel Susie Floating (2003), which depicts a woman floating on her back in a pond laden with lily pads. An earlier work, Man at the Mirror (1997), uses three panels to represent the act of walking into a bathroom and coming to grips with oneself in a mirror. Viewed separately, each of these panels speaks on its own. The two-panel work, So it Goes (2009), expresses the fear, pain, and immaturity of teen pregnancy.

Hilliard’s work is represented in the permanent collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Los Angeles County Museum, and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York. He has been the recipient of a Fulbright Grant and a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship. He is often a visiting lecturer at schools, including Harvard University, the Watkins College of Art, Design, and Film in Nashville, TN, and the Massachusetts College of Art and Design. His works are available through Carroll and Sons in Boston, MA; Yancey Richardson in New York, NY; Jackson Fine Art in Atlanta, GA, and the Mark Moore Gallery in Santa Monica, CA.