Bio
Nina Berman is a documentary photographer, filmmaker, journalist and educator. Her work focuses on war, militarization, trauma, environmental harm and political resistance. She is the author of Purple Hearts – Back from Iraq, (2004) portraits and interviews with wounded American veterans, Homeland, (2008) an examination of the militarization of American life post September 11, and An autobiography of Miss Wish (2017), a story told with a survivor of sexual violence over 25 years and shortlisted for the Aperture and Arles book prizes. Fellowships, awards and grants include: the New York Foundation for the Arts, the World Press Photo Foundation, the Open Society Institute, the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University, the MIT Knight Science Journalism Fellowship and the Aftermath Project. Her work is represented in the permanent collections of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, the Museum of the City of New York, the Library of Congress, the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Musée de la Photographie in Belgium and the Harvard Art Museums among others. She has participated in workshops around the world for young photographers in conjunction with the NOOR photography collective, and writes frequently on photojournalism for the Columbia Journalism Review. She is a Professor of Journalism at Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism where she directs the photojournalism/documentary photography program.
CV
Education
University of Chicago, B.A., 1982
Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, M.S. 1985
Grants, fellowships, awards
2022 Ploughshares with The Program on Science and Global Security at Princeton University
2021 MIT-Knight Foundation Fellowship in Science Journalism
2021 New York City Arts Grant
2020 Humanities War and Peace Initiative, Columbia University
2020/2019 Data, Media and Society/Columbia University
2019 Deutsche Börse Foundation Photography Prize (long list)
2018 Aperture/Paris Photo Book/Text Award, shortlist
2018 Recontres d'Arles Book Award shortlist
2018 Prix Pictet nomination
2018 PDN Annual Book Award
2017 Susan E. Tifft fellow in Documentary and Journalism
2016 Lange Taylor Prize Finalist
2016 Aftermath Project Grant recipient
2015 Prix Pictet nomination
2014 Blue Mountain Center focused residency
2014 Society of Professional Journalists/ Northern California
2014 The Josephine Herrick Project Annual Photographer Award
2013 Prix Pictet nomination
2012 Prix Pictet nomination
2012 Puffin Foundation Grant
2010 Whitney Museum of American Art Residency
2009 Hasselblad Masters Award
2009 PDN Annual Book Award
2007 World Press Photo Foundation Award
2007 Pictures of the Year Award
2006 New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) Fellowship
2005 World Press Photo Foundation
2005 Open Society Institute Documentary Grant
2005 Days Japan International Photo Award
2000 Communication Arts
1999 Pictures of the Year
1999 Communication Arts
1998 Emma Award
1998 Pictures of the Year
1998 Communication Arts
1997 Pictures of the Year Award
1993 Pictures of the Year Award
1987 Livingston Award, finalist
Catalogues/Book Contributions
What We See, White Lion Publishing, 2023
La Région Humanine, ed Gilles Verneret and Michel Poivert, Éditions Loco, 2021
Picturing Resistance, Melanie Light and Ken Light, Ten Speed Press, 2020
Extraction:Art on the Edge of the Abyss, ed: Samuel Pelts, The Codex Foundation, 2020
A World History of Photography, Naomi Rosenblaum, 5th edition, 2019
Everyday Climate Change, (Silvana Editoriale, 2018) edited Dario Cimorelli
War Is Only Half The Story, ed Sara Terry, Dewi Lewis, 2018
Subjective/Objective: A Century of Social Photography, Ed Donna Gustafson and Andres Mario Zervigon, University of Chicago Press, 2017
In/Visible War: The Culture of War in Twenty-First Century America, Rutgers University Press, 2017
Re-imagining A Safe Space, Deborah Willis and Melissa Harris, Nathan Cummings Foundation/NYU Tisch, 2017
Whose Streets? Our Streets!, Meg Handler, Tamar Carroll, Mike Kamber, Bronx Documentary Center, 2017
Unloaded,Susanne Slavick, Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, 2015
1% Privilege in a Time of Global Inequality, Myles Little, Hatje Cantz, 2015
Blue Sky, The Oregon Center for Photographic Arts at 40, Julia Dolan, Portland Art Museum, 2014
Trolleyology, Gigi Giannuzzi/Hannah Watson, Trolley, London, 2013
Photojournalists on War: The Untold Stories from Iraq, Mike Kamber, University of Texas, 2013
War/Photography:Images of Armed Conflict and its Aftermath, Anne Wilkes Tucker, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 2012
Marcellus Shale Documentary Project, Laura Domencic, Pittsburgh, 2012
Bosnia 1992 – 1995, Jon Jones, Gary Knight, Sarajevo, 2012
Making History, RAY Fotografieprojekte, Frankfurt, 2012
Photographs Not Taken, Will Steacy, Daylight Books, 2012
Disquieting Images, Germano Celant /Melissa Harris, Skira, Milan, 2011
Whitney Biennial 2010 Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, 2010
US Today After, Gilles Verneret, Silvana Editoriale, Milan, 2010
A History of Women Photographers, Naomi Rosenblum, Abbeville Press Publishers, New York, 2010
The Pursuit of Happiness,Stitching Fotografie, Noorderlicht, 2009
War Stories, Massachusetts College of Art, Boston, 2008
Humans Being: Disability in Contemporary Art, Chicago Cultural Center, and Chicago, 2006
Crimes of War, Roy Gutman, David Rieff, Norton, USA, 1999
Visiting Artists Lecture Venues
Annenberg Space for Photography
Baruch College
Bronx Documentary Center
Carter Center
Center for Documentary Studies, Duke University
Colby College
Colgate University
Columbia University
Dart Center
DOK Festival, Norway
Drexel University
Empire State College
Francis Marion University
George Washington University
International Center of Photography
Indiana University
Institute for Public Knowledge, NYU
Humanity House, The Hague
John Jay College
Kutztown University
Lisbon Consortium, Portugal
Massachusetts College of Art
Montserrat College of Art
New York Academy of Medicine
New York Film Academy
New School
New York University
Northern Virginia Community College
Palmer Art Museum - Penn State
Pratt Institute
Princeton University
Rochester Institute of Technology
Roosevelt University
Rutgers University
School of Visual Arts
Scottish Parliament
Susquehanna University
University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Santa Barbara
University of Michigan
University of North Carolina, Greensboro
University of Southern California, Annenberg
University of South Wales, Cardiff
Weatherspoon Art Museum
Whitney Museum of American Art
Yale University
Zimmerli Art Museum
Teaching
2019 – Present -Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, NYC, Professor
2012- 2019 Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, NYC, Associate Professor
2019 - Women Photograph Mentor
2019 - NOOR Master Class- Sofia, Bulgaria
2018 -NOOR Master Class - Warsaw, Poland
2011 -Al-Liquindoi and Contemporary Image Collection - Visual storytelling workshop - Cairo, Egypt
Framing the Future/NOOR - Cairo, Egypt
2010 -Whitney Museum of American Art: Veterans Eye: Collaborative Program Brooklyn VA hospital PTSD clinic
2010 -Whitney Museum of American Art: Artist in Residence Youth Insights
2010- NOOR Master Class - St. Petersburg, Russia
1999, 2004 - 2009
International Center of Photography (ICP) Documentary/Photojournalism Seminar
Juries
2022 Victor K. McElheny Award
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