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2017 James Foley Award for Conflict Reporting winner

Tara Todras-Whitehill

About Tara

Tara Todras-Whitehill is a photojournalist, multimedia producer and co-founder of Vignette Interactive, an innovative storytelling company. She is based in Istanbul and has lived in the Middle East region for over a decade.

She documents stories of vulnerable populations, especially women and refugees from the Middle East and Africa. She was a staff photographer with the Associated Press for several years, during which time she documented the 2011 revolutions in Egypt and Libya.

Her photography has been featured in the The New York Times, The Washington Post, BuzzFeed and National Geographic Online among others. With Vignette Interactive, she works with teams to create impactful media projects for NGOs such as UNICEF, UNDP and the International Rescue Committee.

In 2016, she received a World Press Photo award for her work in Sierra Leone with the The New York Times, and in 2017 she received a European Journalism Centre grant to create stories in Nepal and Cambodia about women’s access to abortion.

Committee comments

The selection committee felt Tara’s work sets a sky-high bar for digital journalism that’s practiced in challenging conditions and takes on critical stories and issues. She’s exhibited a rare combination of bravery, digital savvy and eye-catching visual skills, and her work as co-founder of Vignette Interactive has driven storytelling in exciting new directions across the Middle East.

Eric Carvin, Social Media Editor at The Associated Press and committee chair