Bill Luster is a photojournalist working in Louisville at The Courier-Journal, Kentucky's largest newspaper.

He came to The Courier-Journal in 1969, after working for four years at The Glasgow (KY) Daily Times, his hometown newspaper.  While at The Courier-Journal, he has served as Director of Photography, photo editor, and chief photographer. He attended Western Kentucky University.

In addition to his work for The Courier-Journal, Bill photographed  two stories for National Geographic Magazine, and numerous stories for National Geographic Traveler.  His photographs have also appeared in Time, Fortune, Sports Illustrated, Newsweek, Life, and the New York Times Magazine.

He won the 1976 Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography along with other members of the photo staff led by C. Thomas Hardin.  The newspaper documented the chaos around Louisville during court ordered busing.  In 1989 the news department  and the photography staff , also won the Pulitzer Prize for Local Reporting for their coverage of the nation's worst drunk driving accident that occurred in nearby Carrollton, Kentucky.  In 1984 he was awarded the Clarion Award for Environmental Reporting for a variety of his work in Europe.

Bill has covered forty-five  Kentucky Derbies ,twelve Final Fours,  four political conventions, four inaugurations, and was an official photographer for the inauguration of President George H. W. Bush.  In addition, he has enjoyed exclusive access to four United States Presidents:  President Gerald R. Ford, President Ronald Reagan,  President Bill Clinton, and President Barack Obama .

He was president of the National Press Photographers Association in 1993-1994 and was awarded the Joseph Costa award for innovative leadership in 2000 from that organization.  Bill was the administrator for NPPA's educational program , the Flying Short Course, for twelve years and also chaired the NPPA-Nikon Documentary Sabbatical program.  In 2000 he was named Visual Journalist of the Year from Western Kentucky University.  He has been Kentucky Photographer of the Year five times.  In 2010 he won the title of Sports Photographer of the Year from that organization. In July of 2010 he was honored by the National Press Photographers Association,  with the highest award in photojournalism, the Joseph Sprague Award.

Bill is an active member of Highland Baptist Church in Louisville, and lives in Louisville with his wife of thirty-three years, and his dog, Charlie, 9, who doesn't like being photographed,  but is a frequent subject. Their son lives in Hoboken, New Jersey and is a freelance writer.

An avid college basketball fan, Bill would love to dunk the ball in the University of Kentucky's Rupp Arena.  Kentucky owns seven national titles, more than any other university  team except UCLA,  a fact he loves to point out to his friends that cheer for other universities.