James Estrin
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James Estrin (born February 16, 1957) is a photographer, writer, filmmaker, and academic. He is a ''
New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'' senior staff photographer and founder of Lens, ''The New York Times'' photography blog. Estrin was part of a team that won a 2001
Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prizes () are 23 annual awards given by Columbia University in New York City for achievements in the United States in "journalism, arts and letters". They were established in 1917 by the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made his fo ...
for a national series of articles entitled “How Race Is Lived In America." He is also the co-executive producer of the documentary film "Underfire: The Untold Story of Pfc. Tony Vaccaro" which appeared on
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in November 2016.


Early life and education

Estrin was born in
Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...
and raised in
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by two physicians, Dr. Irving Jonathan Estrin, a professor at
Albert Einstein College of Medicine The Albert Einstein College of Medicine is a Private university, private medical school in New York City. Founded in 1953, Einstein is an independent degree-granting institution within the Montefiore Einstein Health System. Einstein hosts Doc ...
, and Dr. Elizabeth Glogau Estrin, a faculty member at
Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center The NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital (abbreviated as NYP) is a nonprofit academic medical center in New York City. It is the primary teaching hospital for Weill Cornell Medicine and Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. The hospit ...
. Estrin attended
Hampshire College Hampshire College is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Amherst, Massachusetts. It was opened in 1970 as an experiment in alternative education, in association with four other colleges ...
in Amherst, MA from 1975 to 1979 where he studied anthropology and labor history as well as photography with Jerome Liebling. From 1979 to 1980, he attended the
International Center of Photography The International Center of Photography (ICP) is a photography museum and school at 84 Ludlow Street on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in New York City. ICP's photographic collection, reading room, and archives are at Mana Contemporary in Jer ...
's Advanced Studies Program where his teachers included
Eugene Richards Eugene Richards (born 1944) is an American documentary photographer living in Brooklyn, New York. He has published many books of photography and has been a member of Magnum Photos and of VII Photo Agency. He was born in Dorchester, Massachusetts. ...
and Fred Ritchin.


Career

In 1981, Estrin became a staff photographer for the
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in
Jackson Jackson may refer to: Places Australia * Jackson, Queensland, a town in the Maranoa Region * Jackson North, Queensland, a locality in the Maranoa Region * Jackson South, Queensland, a locality in the Maranoa Region * Jackson oil field in Durham, ...
, MS. where he worked for the next two years. He then freelanced in
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for the city's major newspapers including ''
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,'' the ''
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'' and the ''
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.'' He began freelancing for ''The New York Times'' in 1987 and joined the ''Times'' staff in 1992. Estrin photographed in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza in 1993, 1998 and again in 2002. In 2004, he was the first journalist to photograph an assisted suicide in Oregon, a multimedia story for which he photographed, produced audio and wrote articles. In 2010, he traveled to Haiti to document the aftermath of the earthquake there. In 2014, he was the subject of the documentary feature “Behind the Lens with Photographer James Estrin” produced by the
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. The piece focused on a series of Estrin's photos that explored spiritual experience. The photos were also the subject of a solo exhibition of Estrin's work mounted by the 92nd Street Y in New York earlier that year. One year after the collapse of the World Trade Center, Estrin took the iconic photo of the
World Trade Center Memorial The National September 11 Memorial & Museum (also known as the 9/11 Memorial & Museum) is a memorial and museum that are part of the World Trade Center complex, in New York City, created for remembering the September 11 attacks in 2001 which k ...
in which a swirl of dust enfolds a circle of survivors at
Ground Zero A hypocenter or hypocentre (), also called ground zero or surface zero, is the point on the Earth's surface directly below a nuclear explosion, meteor air burst, or other mid-air explosion. In seismology, the hypocenter of an earthquake is its p ...
. It was “as if there were spirits on the ground there,” he recalled.


Lens blog

In May 2009, Estrin created Lens, ''The New York Times photography blog, with Josh Haner and David Dunlap. Estrin and Dunlap co-edited Lens until 2011 when David Gonzalez, a ''Times'' metro columnist and former foreign correspondent, became co-editor with Estrin when Dunlap returned to his post as a full-time reporter and Haner went on to focus on his own photography. Through Lens, Estrin has chronicled a turbulent period in
photojournalism Photojournalism is journalism that uses images to tell a news story. It usually only refers to still images, but can also refer to video used in broadcast journalism. Photojournalism is distinguished from other close branches of photography (such ...
and has featured photographers from diverse backgrounds around the globe. In 2013, Estrin created the New York Portfolio Review, an annual event in which photographers from around the world meet with internationally prominent photo editors, critics, curators, book publishers, video producers and gallery owners in private meetings. As of 2017, the event is in its fifth year.


Writer

Estrin has written hundreds of articles and posts for ''The New York Times.'' His writing has also appeared in
National Geographic ''National Geographic'' (formerly ''The National Geographic Magazine'', sometimes branded as ''Nat Geo'') is an American monthly magazine published by National Geographic Partners. The magazine was founded in 1888 as a scholarly journal, nine ...
Magazine,
Aperture In optics, the aperture of an optical system (including a system consisting of a single lens) is the hole or opening that primarily limits light propagated through the system. More specifically, the entrance pupil as the front side image o ...
's "The Photographers Playbook" and several other books.


Films

Estrin is the co-executive producer of "Underfire: The Untold Story of Pfc. Tony Vaccaro," a documentary film shown on
HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American pay television service, which is the flagship property of namesake parent-subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is based a ...
in November 2016. He also appeared in the film, directed by Max Lewkowicz, as well in the documentary, "The Many Sad Fates of Mr. Taledano," produced by Heartland Films.


Teacher

Estrin is an adjunct professor at the City University of New York Graduate School of Journalism where he teaches transmedia storytelling and photography. He also teaches at the
School of Visual Arts The School of Visual Arts New York City (SVA NYC) is a private for-profit art school in New York City. It was founded in 1947 and is a member of the Association of Independent Colleges of Art and Design. History This school was started by Silas ...
' Masters Program in Digital Photography in New York.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Estrin, James Living people American photographers The New York Times people Hampshire College alumni 1957 births