Donna DeCesare: Biography

Donna DeCesare was born in New York City. After completing an M.Phil. degree in English Literature at Essex University, England, she began working as a freelance photographer, writer, and videographer.

DeCesare is the recipient of fellowships and grants, including the Dorothea Lange prize, the Alicia Patterson fellowship, the Mother Jones International Photo Fund grant, and the Soros Individual Project fellowship. In 2003, she was named a fellow of the Dart Society for the Study of Journalism and Trauma, and in 2005, she completed a Fulbright Fellowship in Colombia.

Her photographs have been published in news and arts magazines, and exhibited in national and international exhibitions. Her photo reportage for the website Crimes of War won a top award in the NPPA Best of Photojournalism, and her work on U.S. and Latin American gang violence has won photojournalism awards.

She has worked as a videographer and producer on projects for PBS, Discovery, and The Learning Channel. Killer Virus, her first video assignment, won an Emmy Award in 1995.

In 2002, DeCesare joined the journalism faculty at the University of Texas, where she teaches documentary photography and video. She is also a member of the advisory board of the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas.