Michael Robinson Chavez
Michael Robinson Chavez recently joined The Los Angeles Times as a staff photographer after working at The Washington Post and The Boston Globe. In addition to photographing local stories and events, he has covered wide-ranging international assignments in over 45 countries including: the Congolese Civil War, the war in Bosnia, Bantu refugees in Kenya, violence in San Salvador, the Zapatista uprising in Mexico, the conflict in Israel/Palestine and the US led invasion and occupation of Iraq.
From 1994-95 he photographed events in Central America and Mexico for the Associated Press. Michael was twice named Photographer of the Year in 2004 and 2007 by the White House News Photographers' Association. In addition he was named 3rd place Photographer of the Year in the Best of Photojournalism competition 2004. He has received past awards from the National Press Photographers Association, the Atlanta Photojournalism Seminar, the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, the Society of Newspaper Design and the Pictures of the Year competition. He was recently named a finalist for a Getty Grant.
His work has been exhibited from his native California to Havana, Cuba to the prestigious Visa Pour l'Image photojournalism festival in France, which showed his 10-year project on Peru. His photos have also been exhibited at the Newseum in New York City and Washington DC, Brooks Institute of Photography in Santa Barbara, Ojo Ajeno in Lima, Peru as well as Washington DC's Corcoran Gallery. An exhibit of his photographs of Roma in eastern Slovakia is currently being shown at galleries throughout that country. In August 2007 he will have an exhibit at the War Photo Limited Gallery in Dubrovnik, Croatia of his photographs from the Hezbollah/Israeli war of 2006.
He currently lives with his wife and assortment of horses, dogs and cats outside of Los Angeles.
He will be teaching Finding Stories and Intimacy in the Everyday. "I would like to talk to the students about keeping their personal vision alive between sometimes less than adventurous assignment work. Also pushing it and experimenting with their visions, breaking out of their comfort level and trying new approaches and techniques. Think we can all use with a bit of that!"
Featured Courses
Michael will be team teaching Finding Stories and Intimacy in the Everyday with Ron Haviv.