Born in Alsfeld, Germany, Gerd Ludwig studied photography with Professor Steinert at the Folkwang University of the Arts in Essen, Germany, graduating in 1972. The following year he co-founded VISUM, Germany’s first photographer-owned photo agency, and began working for publications such as Geo, Stern, Spiegel, Time, and Life. Soon after moving to New York in the mid 1980s, Gerd Ludwig started photographing for National Geographic Magazine. His focus on environmental issues and the socio-economic changes following the dissolution of the Soviet Union resulted in a book, Broken Empire: After the Fall of the USSR, a ten-year retrospective published by National Geographic in 2001, and an iPad App, The Long Shadow of Chernobyl, published by Lightbox Press in 2011.Carlos Javier Ortiz
Carlos Javier Ortiz was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico and raised in Chicago, Illinois. As a teenager, his love of photography led him to work at a traveling carnival to save money for photography equipment and college tuition. He studied photojournalism at Columbia College Chicago and became a staff photographer for Chicago In The Year 2000 (CITY 2000), a yearlong project documenting the city and its inhabitants. Since that time Carlos work has been published in Time, Newsweek, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Ebony Magazine and in numerous international print, broadcast and online venues. In 2008 Carlos was named the Illinois Press Photographer Association Photographer of the Year.
