Karen Kasmauski

Karen Kasmauski is a photographer, filmmaker, project manager and educator. During her two decades as a National Geographic magazine photographer, Kasmauski produced 25 major stories on topics including the Ecology of Disease, Human Migration, Viruses, Aging and Genetics. Most of her stories are based on ideas that she originated and proposed.

Kasmauski’s travels have taken her from the rainforests of Malaysia to the megacities of India to the north slope of Alaska. She has covered earthquakes in Japan, been arrested in Africa and exposed to radiation in Russia.

A keen observer of human moments, Kasmauski captures the dynamics within families, the interactions between mother and child, or the calm of an individual’s solitude, all with spontaneity and authenticity. Her work portrays ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances, from families struggling in drought-stricken Africa to immigrants beginning new lives in America. Her stories capture the epic ordinary of everyday lives—the small yet universal moments that connect us each to one another.

Her global health work led to a collaboration with Emory University to produce the award-winning book “NURSE: A World of Care.” Kasmauski traveled around the globe to produce original photography for the book, which explores global issues facing the nursing profession. NURSE, featuring an introduction by former President Jimmy Carter, was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize.

Kasmauski’s previous book “IMPACT: From the Front Lines of Global Health” looks at the causes of infectious diseases throughout the world. Former President Jimmy Carter wrote introductions for both books. Kasmauski’s 2015 documentary film “Fall Seven Times, Get Up Eight—The Japanese War Brides” aired globally on BBC.

After receiving a Getty Images grant to produce a video on the struggles of an environmental nonprofit group, Kasmauski was awarded a Knight Fellowship to study at Ohio University, where she received an MA in Visual Communication.

Kasmauski leads photography tours for National Geographic and other clients in locations ranging from Antarctica to New Guinea to the Galapagos. She teaches classes on video storytelling, photojournalism and news writing at George Washington University and George Mason University. Her photographs have been exhibited at the United States Congress, the Centers for Disease Control, the Carter Center, the National Academy of Sciences, Emory University and the National Geographic Society.

Kasmauski is driven by the power of photography to make eye contact—to recognize in the unfamiliar something that is of yourself. If she is moved by what she sees, she hopes that others will be too.