Ami Vitale

Ami Vitale is a U.S. photojournalist, documentary filmmaker, educator, and speaker. In 2018, she published a photo book titled Panda Love which captures pandas within captivity and being released into the wild.

Early life and education Vitale was born in Florida. She realized the potential of photography at a young age.

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. She self funded her travel through her work with AP and left for the Czech Republic in 1997.

She moved to Prague, Czechia, 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.

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. 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.

Vitale is a founding member of Ripple Effect Images, as well as a member of the Photojournalism Advisory Council for the Alexia Foundation.

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

Books with contributions of photography by Vitale Associated Press: Guide to Photojournalism (2000) by Brian Horton National Geographic: The Most Popular Instagram Photos (2016) Seeing it All: Women Photographers Expose our Planet. 2024

Films Independent Lens (2010) – camera development PBS Frontline World (2007) – reporter Bangladesh: A Climate Trap (2019) – director, co-writer Shaba (2021) – director

Awards 2003: General News, third prize stories, World Press Photo, Amsterdam 2005: People in the News, second prize stories, World Press Photo, Amsterdam 2015: Nature, second prize singles, World Press Photo, Amsterdam 2017: Nature, second prize stories, World Press Photo, Amsterdam 2017: Science & Natural History Picture Story, third place, Pictures of the Year International 2018: Nature, first prize stories, World Press Photo, Amsterdam 2020: Wildlife Photographer of the Year, nomination 2020: National Geographic Photo of the Decade 2024: Honorary Fellowship, The Royal Photographic Society