Michelle Agins

PULITZER PRIZE-WINNING NEW YORK TIMES PHOTOJOURNALIST

Legendary photographer Michelle V. Agins joined The New York Times as a photographer in June 1989. Before that, she worked at The Charlotte Observer, The Chicago Daily News, the South Shore Sentinel Newspaper, the City of Chicago's Department of Human Services, and the Chicago mayor's press office. 

She received Pulitzer Prize nominations in 1990 for her coverage of the Bensonhurst protests and then again in 1995 for her work on the Times series “Another America: Life on 129th Street.” In 2001, she and her colleagues won the Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting for their series “How Race is Lived in America.”

Clarissa Bonet

VISUAL ARTIST AND PHOTOGRAPHER

Clarissa Bonet is an artist based in Chicago whose work explores issues of the urban space in both a physical and psychological context. She holds an MFA in Photography from Columbia College Chicago and a BS in Photography from the University of Central Florida.

Bonet’s work has been exhibited at the Bauhaus Archive in Berlin, Museum of Contemporary Photography, Dorothy Donnelley Foundation, Aperture Foundation, Magenta Foundation, and Catherine Edelman Gallery, and are in the permanent collections of the Museum of Contemporary Photography, University of Michigan Museum of Art, Southeast Museum of Photography, Haggerty Museum of Art, University Club Chicago, and the JPMorgan Chase Art Collection

Sebastián Hidalgo

INDEPENDENT PHOTOGRAPHER

Sebastian Hidalgo is an award-winning photojournalist and digital producer who uses photography to engage and explore many social and humanitarian issues

affecting communities of color.

He is also an educator and host of a bi-weekly editorial support group for freelance visual journalists. Hidalgo believes in the power of growing in conjunction with the people who are in front of the camera, as a witness, a bridge and, in some cases, as a collaborator.

His work has been seen in publications such as The Washington Post, The New Republic, NBCUniversal, The Better Government Association, City Bureau, and more; and is considered among 12 emerging Photojournalists You Should Know by The New York Times.

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Today, Hidalgo is a National Geographic Explorer and continues to freelance throughout the Midwest Region. 

Michelle Kanaar

BORDERLESS MAGAZINE

ART DIRECTOR

Michelle Kanaar is a Chicago-based documentary photojournalist who focuses on immigration, labor, and education. She is thoroughly committed to social justice issues and is the proud daughter of immigrants.

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Kanaar is a co-founder, and the art director, for Borderless Magazine, an award-winning nonprofit news outlet that is reimagining immigration journalism for a more just and equitable future.

Alyssa Schukar

INDEPENDENT PHOTOGRAPHER

Alyssa Schukar is a DC-based photographer, writer and teacher as well as a frequent contributor to The New York Times. In her personal work, she focuses on how public policies -- especially those related to the environment -- affect communities.

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Schukar spent the first five years of her career on staff at a newspaper in the Great Plains where she developed as a documentary and portrait photographer. She also spent two months reporting daily during a military embed in Afghanistan.

Michael Zajakowski

CHICAGO MAGAZINE DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY

Michael Zajakowski is the Director of Photography at Chicago magazine.

Michael has been a photo editor, director of photography, photojournalist and photography educator for more than 30 years. For 20 years, he was a photo and video editor at the Chicago Tribune.

Michael also taught visual communication in the graduate journalism program at DePaul University and digital storytelling at Columbia College Chicago.

He is a portfolio reviewer at photojournalism workshops and mentors young photojournalists.