Ed Kashi

Ed Kashi (born November 16, 1957) is an American photojournalist and member of VII Photo based in the Greater New York area. Kashi's work spans from print photojournalism to experimental film. He is most noted for documenting sociopolitical issues.

Kashi covered the plight of the Kurdish people and the impact of the oil industry upon the impoverished Niger Delta. He is known for his coverage of the Protestant community in Northern Ireland, the lives of Jewish settlers in the West Bank, and the strife between the Shiites and Sunnis in Iraq.

Kashi and his wife, Julie Winokur, are co-founders of a non-profit multimedia company called Talking Eyes Media. Talking Eyes Media was created in 2002 to deliver issue-orientated stories to the general public. Some of the stories covered by Talking Eyes Media/Ed Kashi are: Aging in America, Denied: The Crisis of America's Uninsured and The Sandwich Generation. Aging in America was also the subject of a book, named by American Photo Magazine as one of the best photo books of 2003 and received awards from Pictures of the Year International, World Press Photo and Freddie Awards (two).

"Curse of the Black Gold, Hope and Betrayal in the Niger Delta”, published in National Geographic in February 2007, chronicled the negative impact of oil development on the impoverished Niger Delta. This article led to a collaborative photographic and editorial essay book, Curse of the Black Gold: 50 Years of Oil in the Niger Delta (2008).

Kashi uses stills along with video and audio for storytelling purposes. Such work of his appears on Mediastorm and msnbc.com. His Iraqi Kurdistan flipbook premiered on msnbc.com in 2006. The flipbook utilizes thousands of stills in a moving image format, layered with music to create a symphonic documentary. The flipbook was included in Silverdocs film festival in 2007 and the Tiburon International Film Festival in 2008.

Kashi has worked with National Geographic Society since 1990 and holds a degree in photojournalism from Syracuse University. His clients include: The New York Times Magazine, Time, Mediastorm, Ford Foundation, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, GEO, Newsweek and msnbc.com. Photojournalisms, his latest book is a compilation of journal writings to his wife, done over a nearly 20-year period. It was published in March 2012, by JGS/Nazraeli Press and was highlighted during an interview with Kashi for the New York Times Lens Blog. Kashi continues to teach and lecture.

Publications by Kashi

• The Protestants: No Surrender. Self-published, 1991
• When the Borders Bleed: The Struggle of the Kurds. Pantheon Books, 1994
• Aging in America. Brooklyn: powerHouse, 2003
• Denied: The Crisis of America's Uninsured. Talking Eyes Media, 2003
• Curse of the Black Gold: 50 Years of Oil in the Niger Delta. Brooklyn: powerHouse, 2008
• Three. Brooklyn: powerHouse, 2009
• Photojournalisms. JGS: Witness #8. Portland, Oregon: Nazraeli Press, 2012

Publications with others

• Contatti. Provini d'Autore = Choosing the best photo by using the contact sheet. Vol. I. Edited by Giammaria De Gasperis. Rome: Postcart, 2012. ISBN 978-88-86795-87-6.
• Human Rights Watch: Struggling for a Humane World: Interviews / Ed Kashi: Sugar Cane | Syrian Refugees: Photographs. Göttingen: Steidl; Stuttgart: Institute for Foreign Cultural Relations, 2016. Edited by Ronald Grätz and Hans-Joachim Neubauer. ISBN 978-3-95829-167-6. An annual publication by the Institute for Foreign Cultural Relations (IFA), this year about Human Rights Watch (HRW). In it HRW Executive Director Kenneth Roth, Zama Coursen-Neff, Executive Director of the Children’s Rights Division at HRW, and George Soros discuss the work of HRW. Kashi's photo-essays on Syrian Refugees and on chronic kidney disease among sugar cane workers in Central America illustrate the topic.

• 2006: Special Jury Prize, Days Japan International Photojournalism Awards.
• 2008: Special Jury Prize, Days Japan International Photojournalism Awards.