Photographer Stephanie Sinclair Biography -- National Geographic

Stephanie Sinclair, 35, is an American photojournalist represented by VII photo agency. Based in Brooklyn, New York, she is known for gaining unique access to the most sensitive gender issues and human rights around the world. Sinclair graduated from the University of Florida with a B.S. in journalism and an outside concentration in fine art photography. After college, she went to work for the Chicago Tribune, which sent her to cover the start of the war in Iraq. She later moved to Iraq and then to Beirut, Lebanon, covering the region for six years as a freelance photographer. She contributes regularly to National Geographic, the New York Times Magazine, Time, Newsweek, Stern, GEO, and Marie Claire, among others.

Sinclair was recently awarded the Alexia Foundation Professional Grant, UNICEF's Photo of the Year, and the Lumix Festival for Young Photojournalism Freelens Award for her extensive work on the issue of child marriage. She also earned the 2008 CARE International Award for Humanitarian Reportage for her essay, "A Cutting Tradition: Inside an Indonesian Female Circumcision Celebration." Sinclair's other honors include the Visa D'Or from the 2004 Visa Pour L'Image photography festival in France, as well as a first place in World Press Photo and the FiftyCrows International Fund for Documentary Photography's 2004 Central Asia and Caucasus Grant for her work on women's issues in Afghanistan. Sinclair earned another World Press Photo award for her coverage of the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon and was invited to be part of the prestigious 13th Joop Swart Masterclass organized by World Press Photo.

The Chicago Bar Association's Herman Kogan Meritorious Achievement Award 2000 was presented to Sinclair for her involvement in a Chicago Tribune series on the failure of the death penalty in Illinois. The series resulted in the governor placing a moratorium on capital punishment in the state. Sinclair was also part of the paper's team that won the Pulitzer Prize for its documentation of problems within the airline industry in 2000.

Sinclair's exhibitions have included "The Bride Price: The Consequences of Early Marriage Worldwide," a one-day exhibit on Capitol Hill sponsored by the International Center for Research on Women in 2008 and featured in several other exhibitions; "A Cutting Tradition: Inside an Indonesian Female Circumcision Celebration," sponsored by CARE International 2008 Brighton Photo Biennial, Brighton, England, and part of a group exhibition titled "Memory of Fire: The War of Images and Images of War;" "Children of God: The Young Women of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints," exhibited at the Angkor Photography Festival in Siem Reap, Cambodia, in 2008; "Israel-Lebanon conflict 2006," at the War Photo LTD gallery in Dubrovnik, Croatia, in 2007; "Breaking the Frame: Pioneering Women Photojournalists," at the Museum of Photographic Arts in San Diego, California, in 2006; and "Occupation: Iraq," a solo exhibition at the Peace Museum in Chicago, Illinois, in 2005.

In 2005, her work was featured on The NewsHour With Jim Lehrer in a segment called "Picturing Iraq."

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