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A National Geographic photographer explores the mysteries of Mt. Fuji.
Karen Kasmauski has photographed more than 20 major stories for National Geographic, covering subjects as diverse as Appalachia, Japanese culture, and pandemics. In recent years, she has evolved as the National Geographic go-to photographer for sweeping global health stories, such as the worldwide struggle against disease, the search for an AIDS cure, the mysteries of aging, and female reproductive health. Although she is extremely conversant in the science behind the stories, her work is anything but abstract or academic. Rather, she finds the personal stories behind the headlines, blending a warm human sensitivity with a photographer’s eye for detail to distill global issues into resonant images.
Recently, Kasmauski completed a book on the worldwide nursing crisis, Nurse: A World of Care. As she did with her earlier book, Impact: From the Frontlines of Global Health, Kasmauski tells stories of dedicated medical professionals—“front line soldiers” in the war against suffering and disease—from the frozen rivers of Alaska to the slums of Nairobi. Kasmauski also received a Getty Images Grant for Good, to develop compelling new imagery for the non-profits she supports.
Popular Presentations
Holding Up Half the Sky: How Women Make a Difference Worldwide
Over the past 20 years Kasmauski has traveled the world for National Geographic, photographing stories of a wide range of women, from health workers in Bangladesh, prostitutes in India, and women Marines training for combat to teenage mothers in Nebraska and office workers in Japan. Kasmauski weaves together the common threads that run through their experiences—stories of courage, love, family, and honor.
Nurse: A World of Care
Kasmauski focuses her lens on the inspiring and compelling story of nurses around the globe, from midwives working on the Texas/Mexico border to nurses fighting AIDS in Kenyan slums. In this presentation, she illustrates why nurses hold the power to make a difference and are the true leaders in many communities, serving on the front lines of social, economic and environmental crises.
The World’s Other War: A Decade on the Front Lines of Global Health
For the last ten years Kasmauski has given us the personal side of numerous global health crises: AIDS, malnutrition, immunization, reproductive health, and overpopulation. In this sweeping view of the human condition, Kasmauski shares the stories that have and will continue to shape our joint destiny in this ever-shrinking world.
An American Journalist Explores Her Japanese Roots
No matter how hard she searched the faces and communities of Japan, Kasmauski could not find the mythologized Japanese women she had always read about: the fragile flowers. It wasn’t until she traveled the world as a photographer for National Geographic that she rediscovered half of her heritage and grew acquainted with a modern Japanese culture.
The Value of Cultural Differences
Kasmauski champions the value of what is for many, their first filter on experience. In her line of work, for instance, who shoots the story often factors into what story will be told. A Japanese American woman, as in Kasmauski’s case, will likely have a different cultural filter than a man from another part of the world. Both would arrive at the same scene, but each would interpret the surroundings, the narrative, the relationships, according to his or her baseline beliefs and experiences. Kasmauski argues that this distinction is what feeds the rich human experience, and without it, we are little more empty vessels.
The Culture of Obesity
Reflecting on the cover story and the controversial image Kasmauski shot that raised as much furor as praise, Kasmauski discusses obesity around the world: what it indicates, what it enables, and what it often predetermines in societies as disparate as rural Japan, Northern Alaska, Sub-Saharan Africa and Appalachia.
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