Ed Kashi

Ed Kashi has dedicated his photographic career to documenting the social and political issues that define our times. Since graduating with a degree in photojournalism from Syracuse University in 1979, he has photographed in over 60 countries. His images and essays have appeared in National Geographic, The New York Times Magazine, Time, Fortune, Geo, Newsweek, and various other domestic and international publications.

In 1991, a project he proposed on the Kurds evolved into his first cover story for National Geographic. Recently for the magazine, Kashi's vibrant photographs of Syria captures the country's struggle to overcome past difficulties and emerge as a principal participant in Middle East peace negotiations ("Shadowland", November 2009 edition), and his work chronicling the negative impact of oil development on the Niger Delta (February 2007) evolved into the book Curse of the Black Gold: 50 Years of Oil in the Niger Delta.

Premiering on MSNBC.com (12/06), his Iraqi/Kurdistan Flipbook demonstrated Kashi's innovative approach to photography and filmmaking. Using stills in a moving image format, this creative and thought-provoking form of visual storytelling garnered a Black Maria Film and Video Festival Award (2007).

With his wife, writer Julie Winokur, Kashi completed an eight-year project which included a traveling exhibition, an award-winning documentary film, a website, and a book. Aging in America: The Years Ahead, published in the fall of 2003 by powerHouse Books, examines the social impact of the expanding elderly population in the United States. In 2002 Kashi and Winokur founded Talking Eyes Media, a non-profit multimedia company that explores social issues through visually compelling materials. The first documentary project for Talking Eyes Media produced a book and traveling exhibition on uninsured Americans called, Denied: The Crisis of America's Uninsured. The book was published in March 2003 and the exhibition continues to travel throughout America.