PHOTOJOURNALIST, ASSOCIATED PRESS

J. Scott Applewhite is a photojournalist with The Associated Press in Washington, where he is focused on Congress and the nation's political issues.

For 30 years, his beat was the White House, presidential campaigns, and foreign affairs. He has covered conflicts in the Middle East, Africa and Latin America.

Our job as photojournalists — our responsibility — is to show people what they can’t see on their own. To do that, we have to be there.

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.

NEWS EDITOR VISUALS, POLITICO

Lauren Bulbin is currently leading visual direction at POLITICO, where she focuses on integrating visual storytelling into daily breaking news and enterprise with photography, illustration, video, and graphics.

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.

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).

DIRECTOR/PRODUCER, TINY DESK CONCERTS, NPR

Kara Frame is an award-winning video producer and director for Tiny Desk Concerts at NPR Music. In addition to her work on Tiny Desk, she created the series "Let's Talk" for NPR which spanned topics such as redlining, food deserts, the refugee crisis in Greece among many others. Kara would love to look at photo and video that focuses on the human experience.

VISUALS DIRECTOR, THE BALTIMORE BANNER

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.

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.

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.

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.

WASHINGTON PICTURES EDITOR, REUTERS

Jessica Koscielniak is an award-winning visual journalist and leader based in Washington, DC. Currently, she is the Washington Pictures Editor at Reuters. She is currently serving as President of the White House News Photographer Association.

Previously she was a Senior Video Producer for Breaking News and Enterprise on the National and Local desks at The Washington Post. Prior to that, Senior Producer and Staff Photographer at USA Today, where she covered the War in Ukraine, military suicide, and the COVID-19 pandemic. She worked on the National High-Impact Video Team at McClatchy where she pitched, developed, produced and edited in-depth documentary-style packages and series. In 2012, she worked as a multimedia journalist at Chicago Sun-Times, where her work focused on documenting the gun violence epidemic in Chicago’s toughest neighborhoods.

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.

DOCUMENTARY PHOTOGRAPHER

Maddie McGarvey is a documentary photographer and visual journalist based in Columbus, Ohio. Her work focuses on long-term, intimate storytelling that explores the intersection of family, poverty, health, and policy in the United States. Her projects have examined issues including generational poverty in Appalachia, hunger and food insecurity, maternal health within the prison system, and the impact of environmental and industrial disasters on communities.

CHIEF PHOTOGRAPHER FOR NEWS, GETTY IMAGES

Win McNamee has worked for newspapers, magazines and wire services throughout his more than 30 years in photojournalism. He learned the fundamentals of the craft while working full-time at The State newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina while at the same time attending the University of South Carolina. He went on to freelance for various publications across the globe and worked on stories in South Korea, Afghanistan, the Philippines, and Cuba. In 1990 he joined Reuters News Pictures in Washington and covered the White House, the first Gulf War, Super Bowls, and breaking news events. Win joined Getty Images in 2004 as Chief Photographer and since that time has covered Hurricane Katrina, the Haitian earthquake, the Gulf Oil Spill, more Super Bowls, the mass migration into Europe in 2015 and three presidential campaigns. Win has won numerous awards during his career including Photographer of the Year from the White House News Photographers Association and honors in the Pictures of the Year competition.

DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY, THE WASHINGTON POST

Robert Miller is the Director of Photography at The Washington Post. Robert is an experienced leader with a keen eye. He excels at managing daily and enterprise journalism in all its forms.

Robert is dedicated to fostering a culture of collaboration and mentorship within the photo department and is an effective advocate for impactful photojournalism across platforms. Follow his street photography on Instagram @rmillerphotoeditor.

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.

MANAGING PHOTO EDITOR, WALL STREET JOURNAL

Christine is a DC-based managing photo editor at the Wall Street Journal. She formally worked the Washington Post, where she was the Senior Photo Editor for National and Politics. She brings over 25 years of experience, having previously worked at The Star-Tribune and started her career as a photojournalist in North Carolina.

STAFF PHOTO EDITOR, THE NEW YORK TIMES

Vi Nguyen is the DC staff photo editor at The New York Times. She's most interested in meeting with visual journalists who want to cover Congress, the U.S. military, immigration, domestic policies, and breaking news. She has been with the Times for over four years, working across the Washington, National, Politics, Metro, and Digital desks. She lives in Washington, D.C.

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 PHOTOJOURNALIST

LUCIAN PERKINS, a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner, worked as a staff photographer for The Washington Post for twenty-seven years. At the Post, Perkins covered many significant events in the U.S. and abroad, including Russia and the former Soviet Union since 1988, the first Palestinian uprising, and the wars in the former Yugoslavia, Iraq, and Afghanistan. He co-founded “InterFoto,” an international photography festival in Moscow, Russia, from 1995 to 2005, and published two books: Hard Art, DC, and Runway Madness. He has also filmed and edited numerous short documentaries, including his first full-length one, The Messengers, which follows two young volunteers transformed by the residents of Joseph’s House, a hospice for homeless HIV/AIDs patients in Washington, DC. Currently, Perkins is an independent photographer and filmmaker focused on multimedia projects and documentaries, while continuing to pursue his love of the still image.

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.

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.

SR MULTIMEDIA PRODUCER, NRECA

Erin is a Senior Multimedia Producer for the NRECA - the trade association for rural electric cooperatives - covering both still photography and video production. Previously, she served nearly two years as an official photographer with the United States Senate on a team that pioneered a new short-form video service, and spent 12 years at the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers as a videographer/ photographer/editor. She proudly earned her masters in photojournalism from the University of Missouri, and is an alum of The Kalish and the Missouri Photo Workshop. When not working, she’s an avid runner, sourdough baker, choral singer, and mom to two medium-sized chaos kids, a dog, and a cat.

NORTH AMERICAN BUREAU CHIEF, EPA IMAGES

Shawn Thew is North America Bureau Chief for EPA Images, overseeing the agency’s photographic and multimedia operations across the United States and Canada. He joined EPA in 2003 and has spent two decades covering U.S. politics, breaking news and international events.

Based in Washington, D.C., Shawn has covered every presidential administration from Clinton to Trump. His international assignments have included travel with Presidents Bush and Obama, covering the Iraq War and the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, plus four FIFA World Cups and many Formula 1 races.

Before becoming North America Bureau Chief in 2025, Shawn led EPA Images’ Washington bureau and served as the agency’s Chief White House Photographer. His work has appeared in publications around the world.

Today, Shawn focuses on strengthening EPA Images’ North American coverage, expanding its multimedia capabilities and supporting the development of its visual journalists.

Thew holds a BA in Journalism from San Francisco State University.

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.

GRANT COORDINATOR, IWMF; 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 is also a Grant Coordinator at the International Women's Media Foundation (IWMF). Previously she was Visuals Director at the Baltimore Banner, a local nonprofit news organization in Maryland; 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 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.