André Cypriano

A native of Brazil, André Cypriano was born in 1964 and educated in São Paulo with a university degree in business administration. Concerned with environmental issues, he contributed time and effort as the administrator of “Salva Mar” (Save the Sea—a Brazilian organization dedicated to save the whales in North Brazil).

Marcela Taboada Avilés

Marcela Taboada Avilés is a self-taught freelance photographer who has lived in Oaxaca, Southern Mexico, since 1986. Her work has been published in magazines and newspapers such as Cuartoscuro, México Desconocido, México en el Tiempo, Artes de México, The New York Times...

Sudharak Olwe

Born on March 19, 1966, Sudharak Olwe realized that photography was his calling at the age of twenty. Since then—and through 16 years of publishing in some of India’s leading publications—he has managed to draw immense admiration and awe in his native Indian subcontinent by revealing the naked reality of life’s tragicomic social theatre. It excites him to make a social comment every time he takes a picture!

Neo Ntsoma

I am a 32 year old female photographer based in Johannesburg, South Africa. When I grew up in Mmabatho, a small town 350 kilometers from Johannesburg, my interest was in film and television, but because of race restrictions at the time, I could not fulfill my wish. Instead I applied to study photography, mainly because it was offered in several institutions, some of which did not support the apartheid system.

Chris Rainier
National Geographic Society Presenter

Chris Rainier is considered one of the leading documentary photographers working today. His life mission is to document the disappearing cultures and tribes remaining on the planet. His photographs have appeared in: Life magazine, Time magazine, National Geographic Publications, Smithsonian magazine, Conde Nast Traveler, Outside magazine, The New Yorker, German French and Russian GEO magazines, Men's Journal, The New York Times, and the publications of The United Nations, The International Red Cross, and Amnesty International.

Reza
National Geographic Society Presenter

Reza has captured the beauty and turmoil of the Middle and Far East for such magazines as Newsweek, Time, Geo, and National Geographic. He was born Reza Deghati in Tabriz, Iran, in 1952. (He never used his last name professionally, because his dissident activities made him a target for the authorities.) At 14 he began to teach himself the principles of photography. He later studied architecture at the University of Tehran.

Andy Patrick
FiftyCrows Foundation Presenter

For the past fifteen years, Andy Patrick has been actively involved in the development of social cause organizations striving to make a positive impact on the human condition. He is the Founder & Executive Director of FiftyCrows Foundation, which discovers and disseminates documentary photographic essays that advance our common humanity; he was a founding Board Member of Richard Gere's Healing the Divide Foundation which promotes understanding, cooperation and innovative solutions to issues that threaten the welfare and prosperity of people and communities around the world; he was Founder and past-Executive Director of the Mad Housers of Chicago which built small living units for homeless individuals, and was a founding Board Member of the highly successful magazine StreetWise, which has sold over $10 million in copies by homeless individuals, 75% which goes directly to the seller.