Ami Vitale
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ami Vitale | |
|---|---|
 Ami Vitale at World Press Photo Festival 2018. | |
| Occupations | photojournalist documentary filmmaker |
Ami Vitale is an American photojournalist, documentary filmmaker, educator and speaker.[1][2] In 2018, she published a photo book titled Panda Love which captures pandas within captivity and being released into the wild.[3]
Vitale was born in Florida. She realized the potential of photography at a young age.[4]
She has a degree in International Studies from the University of North Carolina.
Photography and filmmaking
In 1994, Vitale joined the Associated Press (AP) as a picture editor in New York and Washington, D.C.[5][6] She self funded her travel through her work with AP and left for the Czech Republic in 1997.[7]
She moved to Prague, Czech Republic, and spent a year covering the war in Kosovo, traveling back and forth to Prague, and spending a month at a time in the war zone. She later traveled to Angola, and then to the second Intifada in Gaza and Israel. In 2000, she received an Alexia Foundation grant to document a small village in the West African nation of Guinea Bissau.[8]
Vitale currently photographs wildlife and environmental stories in order to educate about global conservation issues. She is a visual journalist working as a photographer for National Geographic, a documentary filmmaker, and a cinematographer.[9] Her recent still photography focuses on wildlife conservation in Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. As an ambassador for Nikon and a contract photographer with National Geographic magazine, she has documented wildlife and poaching in Africa, covered human-wildlife conflict, and concentrated on efforts to save the northern white rhino and reintroduce pandas to the wild.[10]
Vitale is a founding member of Ripple Effect Images, as well as a member of the Photojournalism Advisory Council for the Alexia Foundation.[11]
Writing
Vitale is an author, contributor and frequently writes corresponding articles with her photojournalistic works.
Publications
Books by Vitale
- Panda Love: the Secret Lives of Pandas (2018) – author, photographer[12]
Books with contributions of photography by Vitale
Films
- Independent Lens (2010) – camera development
- PBS Frontline World (2007) – reporter
- Bangladesh: A Climate Trap (2019) – director, co-writer
- Shaba (2021) – director
