Talk

On the occasion of "The Masters Series: Lynsey Addario" exhibition and award, SVA will host a conversation between acclaimed photojournalist Lynsey Addario and Kathy Ryan, Director of Photography at The New York Times Magazine, on Friday, September 9, 2022, at the SVA Theatre, from 6:30–8:30 pm. Admission is free and open to the public.

Kathy Ryan assigned Addario her first story in The New York Times Magazine in 2001. For the last two decades, they have worked on stories in Afghanistan, Iraq, South Sudan, and Ukraine, among many others. This conversation will reflect on their professional relationship and Lynsey's extensive career.

Seating is on a first-come, first-served basis.

Lynsey Addario has covered every major conflict and humanitarian crisis of her generation, including Ukraine, where Lynsey was on assignment for The New York Times for roughly three months between February and May, bringing the world harrowing images and stories from the ground. Lynsey documented the escalating tension in Afghanistan—where she made three separate trips before 9/11—and continued covering the country for the subsequent two decades in addition to covering conflicts in Iraq, Darfur, Libya, Syria, Lebanon, South Sudan, Somalia, Yemen and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

For her unparalleled coverage, she has earned nearly every major award in photojournalism, from the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting (shared with The New York Times team that published “Talibanistan” in The New York Times Magazine) and the Overseas Press Club’s Oliver Rebbot award for “Best Photographic Reporting from Abroad.” She has been awarded a MacArthur Fellowship to support her work and has been nominated for an Emmy Award for her contributions to “The Displaced,” a series that examined the lives of three refugee children displaced by war in Syria, Ukraine and South Sudan. In 2015, American Photo magazine named Addario as one of the five most influential photographers of the past 25 years, for changing the way we see world conflict. In early 2022, Pictures of the Year International named Lynsey “International Photographer of the Year.”

In 2015 Addario released a New York Times best-selling memoir, It’s What I Do, which chronicles her personal and professional life as a photojournalist coming of age in the post- 9/11 world. In 2018, she released Of Love & War, a collection of photographs from the Middle East, South Asia, and Africa. She holds three honorary doctorate degrees.

Kathy Ryan has been the Director of Photography at The New York Times Magazine since 1987. During this time, the Magazine has been recognized with numerous photography awards, including Picture Editing Team of the Year from the Lucie Foundation (2019) and the Publication of the Year Award by Photo District News (2019). Under Ryan's leadership, the Magazine commissions the world's best photographers, a selection of which was published in The New York Times Magazine Photographs (Aperture, 2011) which she edited. A book of her photographs, Office Romance: Photographs from Inside the New York Times Building (Aperture), was published in 2014. Ryan has curated exhibitions internationally and nationally, including the 2012 exhibition “Myths & Realities” at the SVA Chelsea Gallery, co-curated by Scott Thode and featured sixteen notable SVA alumni utilizing varied approaches to the medium of photography. Ryan also lectures extensively on photography and serves as a mentor to students at SVA.