FREELANCE PHOTO EDITOR

Becherer is a visual editor, producer and photographer based in Washington D.C. He contributed photo editing and assigning to the 2026 Public Service Pulitzer Prize awarded to The Washington Post for coverage of federal employees laid off by DOGE: “His wife was dying, his federal job crumbling. It tested his faith-in God and Trump.” While serving as a national photo assignment editor at The Washington Post, he also was part of the team covering the attempted assassination of then-candidate Donald Trump that was awarded the 2025 Pulitzer Prize for breaking news.

As a newsroom leader, he led visual coverage of mass shootings and hurricanes, as well as complex stories on national security. Colleagues have described Becherer as having an almost boundless sense of the possibilities for any given story paired with the experience to execute those ideas with great proficiency and efficiency while maintaining the highest journalistic standards.

A guiding motivation of Becherer’s career is the pursuit of intimate storytelling with a closeness to the subject that brings clarity of understanding to any viewer. As department leadership at The New Orleans Advocate | The Times Picayune he led visual coverage, managed the department’s $60,000 budget and photographed projects. He contributed to the paper’s 2019 Pulitzer Prize in local journalism awarded for a series of stories about inequities in the justice system that helped change the law in Louisiana.

Becherer’s visual approach and philosophy was honed during his decade as a photojournalist covering conflict in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and Pakistan for such clients as The New York Times, Time Magazine, Smithsonian, The Washington Post, CNN and Stern.

From that time, he authored and published a book about emerald miners of Afghanistan, with a foreword by New York Times foreign correspondent Carlotta Gall. It is held in the permanent collection of the Library of Congress.

Becherer is available as an independent visuals editor, guest lecturer or mentor in the greater D.C. area.

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, VISUAL MEDIA ONE

Johnny Bivera is a visual storyteller with more than 35 years of experience documenting the human condition, from the battlefield to the boardroom. A former U.S. Navy combat photographer, he covered conflicts in the Balkans and Afghanistan, sharing in the realities of war and witnessing moments of resilience and hope.

He has photographed notable figures including Rosa Parks, Nelson Mandela, and King Hussein of Jordan. Bivera and his work have been featured by PBS’s Jim Lehrer NewsHour, C-SPAN’s Washington Journal, and NFL Films’ American Postcards. His work has also appeared in major newspapers, video documentaries, and book projects for HarperCollins Publishers and the National Geographic Society.

As Executive Director of Shoot Off Visual Media Workshops and a founding faculty member of the Red Badge Project, Bivera remains committed to mentoring and empowering the next generation of storytellers while continuing to document life - from the seemingly mundane to the truly extraordinary.

PHOTO EDITOR, NEW YORK TIMES

Lance Booth is a photo editor at The New York Times. He handles live coverage and is part of the weather team.

ASSISTANT FOR CONTENT OPERATIONS, NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO

Vanessa supports newsroom logistics at National Public Radio with over 15 years of photography and visual storytelling experience. Prior to her time at NPR she built a diverse freelance portfolio and served as a photographer for a local radio station. Additionally, she has supported National Geographic Society's Image Collections department on image licenses and distribution.

Currently, Vanessa is supporting NPR’s Content Operations team, Newscast, and Visuals team as a photographer for the Tiny Desk concert series. Her work, which also includes photo editing for features on NPR’s The Picture Show. You can follow her on Instagram @sharonvanessacastillo

PHOTO EDITOR AND PHOTOGRAPHER, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESS

Oliver Contreras is a Washington, DC–based photojournalist and photo editor whose career spans more than a decade of documenting politics, breaking news, and everyday life across the United States and abroad.

He currently works as a photographer and photo editor with Agence France-Presse (AFP) in Washington. Previously, Oliver worked as a photo editor at The Washington Post for eight years and served as an official White House photographer, traveling extensively across the United States and to more than 15 countries while documenting the presidency and major international events.

His work is grounded in a strong belief in photography as a way to connect people, preserve moments, and bring attention to stories that might otherwise go unseen. Alongside his news work, Oliver has a particular interest in documenting immigrant communities and exploring stories of identity, belonging, culture, and the experiences that connect people across borders.

SR PHOTO EDITOR, CIVIC NEWS COMPANY

Elaine Cromie is a Detroit-based photojournalist and senior photo editor shaping visual journalism at Civic News Company’s three nonprofit news organizations.

As an independent visual journalist she’s worked extensively with publications including The New York Times, NPR, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Detroit Free Press and many others. Cromie was a 2022-2023 Knight-Wallace fellow at the University of Michigan and a 2019 IWMF reporting fellow in Mexico. She’s been involved with various journalism community organizations including the Authority Collective, Junto Photo Coop, NAHJ, AAJA and others.

Born and raised in Colorado to a mixed Uchinaanchu and Puerto Rican family, Elaine’s personal work focuses on family and community archives, indigenous language reclamation and her connection to her ancestors.

INDEPENDENT PHOTO EDITOR

Jill Foley is an independent photo editor based in the Washington, DC area, currently working with The New York Times. Previously, she was a Senior Photo Editor for National Geographic Books. She has also edited for National Geographic Newsstand Special Editions, AARP, Discovery Communications, Smithsonian Magazine, and Education Week. She is a graduate of Boston University's Masters in Photojournalism program, an alum of The Kalish Visual Editing Workshop, and is a member of Women Photojournalists of Washington (WPOW).

INDEPENDENT PHOTOGRAPHER

Shuran Huang is a photographer based in New York City. Her work explores immigration, human rights, local politics, and diaspora experiences. Drawing from her multilingual and diasporic background, she approaches stories with cultural sensitivity, focusing on the nuanced and intimate moments that reveal both personal and political dimensions.

Wendy Galietta is Visuals Director at The Banner. She is an award-winning visual journalist and editor who served as project editor on The Washington Post's 2024 Pulitzer Prize-winning National Reporting series examining the rise of the AR-15 rifle and was part of the team that earned the 2026 Public Service Pulitzer for DOGE coverage. Recently she served as Senior Visual Editor for Politics and Government at The Post. Following her departure, she contributed as photo editor and consultant at WIRED, where she helped advance the publication to a more photojournalistic visual report and built the photo strategy for the relaunch of Yahoo Weather at Yahoo News.

STAFF PHOTOJOURNALIST, THE BALTIMORE BANNER

Jessica Gallagher’s reporting and photos for a project about Baltimore's drug overdose crisis, published as a collaboration between The Banner and The New York Times, won a Pulitzer Prize in 2025. Prior to joining The Banner, Gallagher worked at The Greenville News, The Quad-City Times, and The Times-Georgian. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Professional Photography from the Brooks Institute.

PHOTO DIRECTOR, US NEWS & WORLD REPORT

Avi Gupta makes photographs and spends much of his professional life helping others shape theirs. A photographer, picture editor, and educator, his practice is informed by years of editing visual journalism alongside a personal body of work rooted in quiet encounters. His work has been exhibited widely and includes commissions from the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, The Kreeger Museum, and the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center. He lectures at universities throughout the Washington, DC, area on photography and visual storytelling.

BOARD MEMBER, NATIONAL PRESS PHOTOGRAPHERS FOUNDATION

Keith W. Jenkins is an accomplished digital strategist and visual journalism leader with a career spanning The Washington Post, NPR, and National Geographic. He has led award-winning teams across print, broadcast, and digital platforms, with work recognized by Pulitzer, Emmy, Peabody, Murrow, World Press Photo, and Webby awards. Most recently, Jenkins served as Vice President of Music and Visuals Strategy at NPR, and he is currently a board member of the National Press Photographers Foundation. His leadership emphasizes innovation, collaboration, and expanding the role of visual journalism in a changing media landscape.

PHOTO & VIDEO DIRECTOR, EDUCATION WEEK

Marvin Joseph, a native of the District of Columbia. Directs the photography & video department for Education Week in Bethesda, Maryland. Previously he had been a staff photographer for nearly 30 years at The Washington Post since 2000. He started snapping photographs at age 14 and began his career at The Post as a news aide at 19. Joseph interned for the Walt Disney World Company in Orlando, Florida, where he documented tourist visits and various events at the theme parks. He landed his first job as a staff photojournalist at the Press Journal in Vero Beach, FL, before working for the Palm Beach Post. In July 2000, he returned to the D.C. area to work in the Howard County bureau for The Washington Post. Joseph is especially passionate about celebrity portraiture, editorial and fashion photography.

PHOTOGRAPHER AND STORY DEVELOPER

Karen started as a staff photographer for the Virginian Pilot winning numerous honors including runner up for Newspaper Photographer of the Year. She went on to freelance for National Geographic Magazine, photographing 25 major stories. Geographic awarded her their prestigious Photographer in Residence position, leading to her first book IMPACT: From the Front lines of Global Health. A follow on book, NURSE: A World of Care were both nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in community service. Her most recent stories on Black Midwives, and on the Gullah-Geechee culture were accepted by the prestigious Communication Arts Photography Annual. Her work with two colleagues on Japanese War Brides is an exhibit with Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Services. Her most recent work has been on increase of Black Lung.

PHOTO EDITOR, THE NEW YORK TIMES

Greg Kendall-Ball is the DC assignment photo editor covering the White House, the Supreme Court and the global health. He is a proud graduate of the Missouri School of Journalism, and has worked at newspapers and magazines as a photographer, photo editor and writer for almost 20 years.

INDEPENDENT PHOTO EDITOR

Tom Kennedy is an internationally known visual journalist with many years of print and online journalism experience, including as positions as Managing Editor/Digital News for PBS NewsHour, Managing Editor for Multimedia at The Washington Post, and Director of Photography at the National Geographic Society. Kennedy spent the last five years of his career as Executive Director of ASMP (American Society of Media Photographers). Previously, he has also worked as an independent consultant coaching and mentoring individual photographers, as well as providing strategic analysis on visual storytelling for media companies and nonprofit organizations.

SENIOR PHOTO AND MEDIA EDITOR, THE CHRONICLE OF HIGHER EDUCATION

Erica Lusk has been a photo editor for 21 years. Before joining The Chronicle of Higher Education, she worked at The Washington Post, and holds a BFA in photojournalism from the Corcoran College of Art + Design.

PHOTOGRAPHER, EDUCATOR

Lianne is a documentary photographer and educator with over two decades of experience photographing in communities across Brazil, Southeast Asia, and Latin America. Lianne's long-term projects center on community-engaged, non-extractive methodologies. Her photographic work has been published internationally including breaking the Zika virus outbreak story for the Washington Post, and produced visual storytelling for international NGO campaigns and impact reports. Lianne is a grant recipient from the IWMF, the NPPF, and Fondation Yves Rocher Prix Photo, as well as widely exhibited, including at Festival Photo La Gacilly, Photoville, and Arts + Literature Laboratory in Madison.

Alongside her practice, Lianne is an adjunct faculty and teaching artist in Philadelphia building inquiry-based curricula that use exhibitions and archival research to examine representation, identity, and the gaze. She serves on the board of the Authority Collective and the Alumni Advisory Board of the Asian American Journalists Association.

STAFF PHOTOJOURNALIST AT THE BALTIMORE BANNER

Kaitlin is a staff photojournalist at The Baltimore Banner. She has been there since 2022, covering everything from breaking news, politics, feature and sports with the occasional long-term project. Prior to The Banner, she was a freelancer in the Baltimore and DC area. Kaitlin is the photojournalism professor at Towson University where she graduated from in 2014 and again in 2016 with a study focus on journalism and long-form writing.

FEATURES PHOTO EDITOR, THE WASHINGTON POST

Annaliese Nurnberg is a photo editor for Features at The Washington Post. She focuses mostly on Style, covering culture, arts and entertainment. Previously, she was also a photo editor with The Washington Post Magazine. Prior to joining the Features, she worked with the with Business, Technology and Health & Science. sections. 

PHOTO EDITOR, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Photo assignment editor for the Associated Press in Washington with over three decades of experience. Responsible for determining and assigning the stories and subjects AP Photos will cover daily in Washington.  Includes photo coverage at The White House, Capitol, all major Washington sports teams and all news events in Washington.  Assign both staff and freelance photographers to cover local, national and international stories.  Work with news editors, reporters and digital team daily to determine how we will illustrate our stories.

FREELANCE PHOTOGRAPHER

Moriah Ratner is a freelance photojournalist based in Washington, D.C. She studied photojournalism and psychology at Syracuse University in 2018 and received a Master of Arts in Early Childhood Education in 2022.

Moriah’s work takes a documentary, journalistic approach to human interest stories revolving around health, politics, criminal justice, religion, gender inequality, and wellness. Moriah’s editorial foundation informs her approach, combining the use of found light with emotionally driven and intimate storytelling. Her practice includes working across a mix of daily news-based assignments, portraiture, and long-term projects.

Moriah attended the Eddie Adams Workshop XXX, the Hearst National Journalism Awards Championship, the 71st Missouri Photo Workshop as the 2019 Cliff & Vi Edom Scholarship recipient, and the 2018 and 2024 New York Portfolio Review.

POLITICS PHOTO EDITOR, BLOOMBERG NEWS

Stefani Reynolds is a photographer and photo editor based in Washington DC. She is currently the DC/Politics photo editor at Bloomberg News.

ADJUNCT PROFESSOR IN PHOTOJOURNALISM, GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY and INDEPENDENT PHOTOJOURNALIST AND DOCUMENTARY FILMMAKER

Astrid Riecken is a 2025 and 2026 DC Art and Humanities Fellowship Grantee, a team 2022 Pulitzer prize-winning photographer, an educator and artist, based in Washington, DC. Since 2016, Riecken has taught at the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design of the George Washington University and since 2020 at the School of Communication at American University.

Transcending the documentation of social justice and natural beauty, her work dives into the intersection of spiritual life and community strength, underpinned by a commitment to universal values of kindness and integrity.

Riecken has also won numerous awards in Picture of the Year International (Poyi), National Press Photographers Association's Best of Photography (BOP) and the White House News Photographers Association (WHNPA) competition in which she was named "Photographer of the Year" in 2014. In 2022, nominated by The Washington Post for breaking news, she won as part of a team the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for the coverage of the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

PHOTO EDITOR, CNN

Tristen Rouse is a photo editor at CNN, where he works with the the Politics and Investigative teams.

SR PHOTO EDITOR, THE WASHINGTON POST

Toni Sandys is a senior photo editor at The Washington Post, where she oversees visual coverage for Style—spanning arts, sports, food, culture, health and travel. An award-winning photojournalist, she joined The Post in 2004 after working at the St. Petersburg Times. Before moving into editing, Toni spent more than two decades on the sidelines photographing sports at every level—from high school and college competition to professional sports and the Olympics. Throughout her career, she has also photographed and edited major news and political coverage, including presidential campaigns, national political conventions and inaugurations.

FREELANCE PHOTOJOURNALIST AND EDITOR

Srivastava is an Indian-American documentary photographer and photo editor based in Washington, DC. She has previously worked with The New York Times, NPR, The Washington Post, and CNN as both a photographer and photo editor.

MANAGING EDITOR, EDUCATION WEEK

Sandra Stevenson is managing editor at Education Week, where she oversees visuals and immersive experiences. Previously, she was deputy director of photography at The Washington Post, leading international, climate, and health coverage. Before that, she managed picture editors at CNN, overseeing the home screen, stories, newsletters, and special projects. At The New York Times, she led digital visual editors on the news desk and contributed to Race/Related, Gender, and projects including Overlooked and This Is 18. Earlier in her career, she spent eight years at the Associated Press, advancing from photo assistant to overseeing news photo coverage for Latin America and the Caribbean, and served as program coordinator for the Black Filmmaker Foundation. An active leader in the Overseas Press Club, Stevenson has served as governor, a vice president, treasurer, and programming chair, as well as judged the Continuing Coverage of Conflict Award, curated a 2021 Photoville tribute to Christopher Dickey, and served on the micro-grant and nominating committees.

PHOTO DIRECTOR, AARP

Michael Wichita has been with AARP since 2005, and works with AARP's print publications, websites, newsletters, and social presence. Wichita previously worked as a professional photographer. His work for AARP has been recognized by The Webby's, SPD, and American Photography amongst others. Michael is a frequent speaker and portfolio reviewer at industry events. He graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design.

FREELANCE VISUALS EDITOR AND PHOTOJOURNALIST

Ariel Zambelich is a freelance photojournalist, visuals editor, and art director, collaborating to tell stories through photo and design. She was most recently Visuals Director at the Baltimore Banner, a local nonprofit news organization in Maryland. Previously she was Managing Photo Editor for the Wall Street Journal with a focus on Politics + National News, Senior Photo Editor for The Intercept, Supervising Editor of Photography + Art Director for NPR Visuals, and a photo editor for WIRED. She spent several years co-directing a documentary photography gallery in San Francisco. She spent several years on the board of the Authority Collective, an organization that amplifies the voices of female-identifying and nonbinary visual creators of color through community support and education. She was also an organizer with the Freelance Solidarity Project, a union for freelance media workers.