User talk:Karen Pulfer Focht

Karen Pulfer Focht - American Photojournalist
Karen is an award winning independent photojournalist. She is a former staff photographer for The Commercial Appeal newspaper in Memphis, Tennessee 1988-2014. She was named one of the worlds top contemporary photographers by LensCulture in 2017.

She is currently self-employed and based out of Memphis where she brings her photojournalism style to what ever assignment she is on. Karen has a diverse client list but she specializes in long term projects and editorial photography for the Associated Press, area magazines, national and international newspapers, wire services various other publications and non-profits.

Karen is a visual story teller and she see's herself as a "story teller who happens to use a camera." She says it is her job to make people care.

Karen has received innumerable awards during her career. Most notably, she was presented with the Society of Professional Journalists' Medallion for Distinguished Service to the American People for her series on infant mortality in Memphis, "Born to Die." For this project, she also was awarded the Casey Foundation Medal For Meritorious Journalism.

Karen got her start at the newspapers near her hometown of Glenview, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. She studied photography at Columbia College where her professor was Pulitzer Prize winning photojournalist John H.White. From there she went to the Post-Tribune in Northwest Indiana, where she was named Indiana Photographer of the Year in 1987 as a rookie.

With The Commercial Appeal, her photo assignments took her to the White House, New Zealand, Peru, China, and France. Karen was chosen as a photographer for the book project America 24/7. The America 24/7 team of top American photojournalists, took extraordinary pictures of an ordinary week in America. Her work has been featured in national and international publications, including Newsweek, Rolling Stone, People, Sports Illustrated and a cover on Time Magazine for Kids.

Karen's work is currently being featured in several books as well on two dozen album covers.

She brings an artistic quality to much of her work and she is frequently invited to exhibit her art; she has also recently started selling select prints.

Focht website and portfolio is at www.karenpulferfocht.com

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