Festival Speaker Series

Festival Kickoff
Online discussion with Ed Kashi and Adriana Zehbrauskas. Moderated by Dudley Brooks. 

Tuesday, March 19, 7:30 pm via Zoom

Photo by Adriana Zehbrauskas. Photographed on assignment for The New York Times - Haiti, November 2022

VII photographers Ed Kashi and Adriana Zehbrauskas will engage in a lively discussion moderated by Dudley Brooks, Washington Post Deputy Director of Photography, about pressing issues facing documentary photography today.
 

Dudley Brooks

Dudley M. Brooks is the Deputy Director of Photography for The Washington Post, where he manages the production of all photo content for the Features, Local, and Sports sections. Before its discontinuance, he was also the Photo Editor for The Washington Post Magazine. Prior to this, Brooks was the Director of Photography and Senior Photo Editor for the monthly magazine Ebony and its weekly sister periodical Jet — both published by Johnson Publishing Company in Chicago. These iconic publications chronicled the African American experience for over 70-years and Brooks was a key member of the senior staff responsible for enhancing the editorial approach of each. 

Ed Kashi

Ed Kashi is a prolific photojournalist who uses photography, filmmaking and social media to explore geopolitical and social issues that define our times. He is also a dedicated  educator and mentor to photographers around the world and lectures frequently on visual storytelling, human rights and the world of media.

He has covered topics as diverse as the impact of oil in Nigeria, the protestant community in Northern Ireland, the lives of Jewish settlers in the West Bank, the impact of an aging society through his groundbreaking project, Aging in America, climate change, the plight of Syrian refugees, and the global epidemic of Chronic Kidney Disease among agricultural workers. A member of VII Photo Agency since 2010, Kashi has been recognized for his complex imagery and its compelling rendering of the human condition.

His early adoption of hybrid visual storytelling has produced a number of influential short films and in 2015 he was named Multimedia Photographer of the Year. Kashi’s embrace of new approaches to visual storytelling has led to creative social media and printed projects for a range of clients including National Geographic, Open Society Foundations, The New Yorker, MSNBC, Fortune, Human Rights Watch, International Medical Corps, NBC.com, New York Times Magazine, Oxfam, and TIME magazine.

A leading voice in the photojournalism world, Kashi frequently lectures on a wide range of topics for arts institutions, universities, schools and professional organizations. Through his editorial assignments and personal projects Kashi has published eight books, including Curse of the Black Gold: 50 Years of Oil in the Niger Delta, THREE, and Photojournalisms.

In 2002, Kashi in partnership with his wife, writer + filmmaker Julie Winokur, founded Talking Eyes Media.  The non-profit company has produced numerous award-winning short films, exhibits, books, and multimedia pieces that explore significant social issues. Their project, Newest Americans, was just awarded Best Online Project of the Year from Pictures of the Year International.  www.edkashi.com

Adriana Zehbrauskas

Adriana Zehbrauskas is a Brazilian documentary photographer based in Phoenix, Arizona. Her work focuses on issues related to migration, religion, human rights, climate change and underrepresented communities. She has worked in more than 20 countries and contributes regularly to The New York Times, CNN, Washington Post, The Guardian and UNICEF and her photographs have been featured in numerous international publications. She has received multiple awards for her work, including a Maria Moors Cabot Prize (Columbia University) for her “distinguished body of work  that has contributed to Inter­-American understanding”, a Robert Capa Gold Medal Citation (Overseas Press Club) for her Haiti coverage for The New York Times, the Anja Niedrienghaus Courage in Photojournalism Honorable Mention (IWMF) and a Getty Images Instagram Grant, among others. She has taught at the International Center of Photography (ICP-NY), the Foundry/VII Academy Photojournalism Workshop, the World Press Photo Masterclass Latin America and is currently the Howard G. Buffet Visiting Professor of Visual Journalism at Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University.

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