TPS Presents: Stephanie Sinclair

Join us for The Photo Society Presents Stephanie Sinclair on April 9, 2024 at 12:00PM ET. This event is free and open to the public made possible with the support of our friends at MPB. Please feel free to share the link https://tinyurl.com/tpsstephanie

In a career that’s spanned over two decades, Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Stephanie Sinclair, a Canon Explorer of Light, has used her images to put faces to some of the world’s most serious gender and human rights issues. Illuminating the lives of marginalized and vulnerable people with dignity, empathy and respect, Sinclair’s work is regularly published in esteemed outlets including National Geographic and The New York Times Magazine. Her ongoing series, Too Young to Wed,” on child marriage has earned numerous global accolades, including four World Press Photo awards and numerous prestigious exhibitions.

In her talk Stephanie will delve into the captivating world of conflict and social justice photography, while sharing the transformative power visual storytelling can play in advocacy. She will take attendees through her remarkable journey, from capturing compelling narratives while covering conflicts in the Middle East, to leveraging her photography as a catalyst for social change globally. And gain insights into the pioneering field programming Stephanie now oversees through her nonprofit Too Young to Wed which empowers some of the world’s most at-risk girls through education and the art of photography. 

The talk will be followed with a Question-and-Answer session moderated by TPS Communications Director Alex Snyder. We’ll also be giving away a signed print by Stephanie.

This event is free and open to the public. Please share the link https://tinyurl.com/tpsstephanie

Hope to see you there!

The Photo Society

About the author

Randy Olson is a photographer in the social-documentary tradition. He often works with his wife, Melissa Farlow, and their assignments have taken them to over 50 countries in the past 30 years. Although they are published in LIFE, GEO, Smithsonian and other magazines, they have primarily photographed projects for the National Geographic Society. They work individually, but have also co-produced National Geographic magazine stories on northern California, American National Parks, and the Alps. They photographed the southern United States for a book by Collins Publishing, and have collaborated on over 70 books by various publishers. After teaching at the University of Missouri, they have been consistent contributors as faculty to the Missouri Photo Workshop created by the MU professor who coined the term “photojournalism.”

While working as a newspaper photographer, Olson received an Alfred Eisenstadt award for Magazine Photography and an Alicia Patterson Foundation Fellowship to support a seven-year project documenting a family with AIDS, and a first place Robert F. Kennedy Award for a story on problems with Section 8 housing. He was also awarded the Nikon Sabbatical grant and a grant from the National Archives to save the Pictures of the Year collection.

Reaching almost a million on social media, most of his work centers around resource extraction and how that affects indigenous communities or pristine ecosystems. Randy’s 30+ National Geographic magazine projects have taken him to almost every continent. The National Geographic Society published a book of his work in a Masters of Photography series. Olson was the Magazine Photographer of the Year in the Pictures of the Year International (POYi) competition, and was also awarded POYi’s Newspaper Photographer of the Year—one of only two photographers to win in both media in the largest photojournalism contest operating continuously since World War II. More recently, Randy is the recipient of the 2017 Siena International Photo Awards (SIPA) Photographer of the Year, and the 2021 Hamdan Bin Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum (HIPA) International Photography Appreciation Award. SIPA and HIPA—only one consonant apart—but represent different parts of the world honoring his photography and volunteer work.

In 2011, Randy founded The Photo Society (thephotosociety.org) to provide support for, and exposure to members as the economics of print dwindles. The National Geographic photographers elected Randy to represent them on the Photographers Advisory Board (PAB) – a group that represents the photographers in contract negotiations with National Geographic. During his tenure, the PAB successfully rebuffed National Geographic’s attempt to take the photographer’s copyright away from them and The Photo Society was born as a result of the increasing need for National Geographic photographers to stand together.

When National Geographic Image Collection (NGIC) closed the agency and their archive to the outside world, making many of their most-published photographers invisible, he began resurrecting the NGIC archive within the auspices of The Photo Society. The Photo Society archive is a 501c3, funded by donations.