I can't believe that I blogged so far and not mentioned Ami Vitale on the pages of TTP!
It's been written of Ami Vitale that she's nothing short than a terrific photographer, whose work is about being with people in every sense. A feature on her from 2003 on the Digital Journalist site says "She does not simply report her stories. She lives them."
Vitale is regarded as one of today's most memorable visual storytellers. In addition to multiple POYi awards, Vitale has received recognition for her work from World Press Photo, the NPPA, Photo District News and the Society of American Travel Writers, among many other organizations. In 2002 Vitale was awarded the first-ever Inge Morath grant by Magnum Photos. The Alexia Foundation has also awarded her grants for World Peace and the city of Gijon, Spain. Vitale's photographs have been published in major international magazines such as National Geographic Adventure, Geo, Discovery, Newsweek, Time, The New York Times Magazine, Smithsonian and Le Figaro. Her photographs have been presented in international exhibitions including: Visa Pour L'Image, Perpignan; Reporters Sans Frontiers, Paris; the FotoArt Festival in Poland; the Open Society Institute and The United Nations in New York.
She believes in spending time on a story, and in living with the people she photographs. This, she says, has helped her to get beneath the surface of a story. In an interview on the Digital Journalist, Ami says: “You have to get into a culture to actually live there to understand things aren’t as sensational when you understand them in their context. I’ve jumped in, parachuted into a few places before and I didn’t like it. It’s very dangerous and I’ve felt like I wasn’t portraying things truthfully, or it was a different truth.” This speaks for itself.
Here's Ami Vitale's website.
