2024 Leica Women Foto Project Jurors

Karin Rehn - Kaufmann

Director, Leica Galleries Worldwide

Karin Rehn-Kaufmann, born 1957 in Freiburg, studied German philology and philosophy at the University of Freiburg after leaving school. She also holds a diploma from the Eurythmische Hochschule in Stuttgart, where she was subsequently employed as a lecturer from 1982 to 1986. In addition to this, she is also a graduate of the Fernuniversität Hagen (distance teaching university) in Event Management.

After ACM Projektentwicklung GmbH, Salzburg, bought into Leica Camera AG in 2005, her long-standing passion for photography led to the opening of the Leica Galerie in Salzburg in 2008.

Today, Karin Rehn-Kaufmann is Art Director & Chief Representative Leica Galleries International and holds management responsibility for the 21 Leica Galleries around the world.

She has successfully curated numerous prestigious exhibitions including, for instance, the project ‘Chinaflug’, an exhibition showing spectacular aerial photography from the 1930s that was presented at the Chinese Embassy in Berlin and at ‘Photo Shanghai’ in 2015. She is also held responsibility for exhibition concepts for the Leica Galerie at the photokina in 2012, 2014 and 2016, as well as the ‘10x10’ exhibition on the occasion of the jubilee ‘100 years of Leica photography’, and ‘50 best for Leica’ – an exclusive collection of the most famous photographs taken by the prominent US Magnum photographer Elliot Erwitt.

Karin Rehn-Kaufmann has been a member of the jury of the Leica Oskar Barnack Awards since 2008 and has played a significant role in the organisation and further development of the prestigious photographic competition.

Elizabeth Krist

Former Senior Photo Editor at National Geographic

Elizabeth Krist was a National Geographic photo editor for over 20 years. She is on the boards of Women Photograph and W. Eugene Smith Fund, and advises the Eddie Adams Workshop. She also collaborates with Apple. In 2023 she co-curated CatchLight’s Visual Storytelling Summit in San Francisco, and for more than ten years helped program National Geographic’s Photography Seminar. Krist curated the Women of Vision exhibition and book, plus Photoville installations for three festivals. Honors include the 2020 John Durniak Mentor Award from NPPA, and recognition from POYi, Overseas Press Club, and Communication Arts. She teaches for the International Center of Photography, and often judges grants and competitions.

Laura Roumanos

Co-Founder, Photoville

Laura Roumanos (she/her/hers) is a Lebanese Creative Producer hailing from Australia, serving as the co-Founder of Photoville, a non-profit organization devoted to cultivating a wide, diverse audience for visual storytelling by producing a free annual photo festival in NYC, activating public spaces, and connecting artists to a worldwide audience through educational programming and community events. Laura graduated from the prestigious National Institute of Dramatic Arts in Sydney, Australia and worked as a Theatrical and Events Producer before making the big move to NYC 18 years ago. Since then, Laura has worked in New York for the Manhattan Theatre Club, St. Ann’s Warehouse, Creative Time, The Future of StoryTelling, and the World Science Festival, in general management and senior producing roles respectively.

Laura has also produced several large scale theatrical shows for creatives such as Karen O, Bryce Dessner, Richard Reed Parry, Spike Jonze, Opening Ceremony and the Brooklyn Youth Chorus. For the past 10 years, Laura has co-produced the New York Photography Portfolio Reviews with the New York Times and also continues to consult, manage, and produce numerous theatrical shows, events and public programs, in addition to teaching the Business of Art course at the NYU Tisch School. She is currently the Senior Creative Producer at Meta producing Instagram’s @design account. Laura has built a reputation in the New York Arts scene as someone to go to for consultation and advice regarding public art and multi-disciplinary projects and events across all mediums.

Maggie Steber

Documentary Photographer & Guggenheim Grant Fellow

Maggie Steber is a Guggenheim Foundation Fellow, 2017-2018, and has worked in 71 countries photographing stories on the human condition.

She was named as one of eleven Women of Vision by National Geographic Magazine. Other honors include Pulitzer Prize Finalist 2019, the President’s Award from the Overseas Press Club 2019, the Lucie Award for Photojournalism 2019, Leica Medal of Excellence, World Press Photo Foundation Awards, Pictures of the Year Awards, Medal of Honor for Distinguished Ser-vice to Journalism from the University of Missouri, the Alicia Patterson Grant, the Ernst Haas Grant and a Knight Foundation Grant.

Steber’s photographs are included in the Library of Congress, the Guggenheim Foundation Collection and the Richter Library Collections at the University of Miami. Earlier in her career, Steber worked as a photo editor for Associated Press and Director of Photography at The Miami Herald, as well as a contract photographer for Newsweek Magazine. She is affiliated with VII Photo Agency and lives in Miami, FL.

Natalia Jimenez

Senior Picture Editor,
The Washington Post

Natalia is a senior picture editor on the National desk at The Washington Post, where she covered the Trump presidency, 2020 election, and January 6th insurrection. Before joining the Post, she managed the photography team at NBC News where she also art directed and commissioned illustrations. She has served as a juror for photography awards for the Overseas Press Club, American Photography 37, and NPPA’s Best of Photojournalism. Natalia was faculty on the first Women Photograph workshop held in Latin America in 2019 and was a mentor in their 2021 program. She was first drawn to visual editing while an assistant to photographers Alex Webb and Rebecca Norris Webb as they developed longform visual narratives through book publishing. Though she has focused on digital storytelling for most of her career, she retains an appreciation for the tactile experience of photography books and aims to apply that thoughtfulness to her everyday work.

Nikki Reed

Actress, Photographer, Writer

Nikki Reed is a prolific actress, designer and environmentalist, best known for co-writing / starring in the film ‘Thirteen’ when she was just 13 years old. A passionate environmentalist and sustainability guru, Nikki Reed has long been a leading voice in eco. The Founder and CEO of sustainable fine jewelry & lifestyle brand Bayou With Love, Reed also serves as the Creative Director of eco-friendly vegan sneaker brand LOCI footwear. Nikki focuses on innovation, versatility and longevity of pieces through her use of recycled tech gold and solar grown diamonds with Bayou, incorporating that circular and regenerative approach into every brand she works with. Additionally, she represents the iconic camera brand LEICA as a photographer and sits as an investor/strategic advisor for clean medicine brand Genexa. She won the Audience Award at CES (the Consumer Electronics Show) for her partnership with Dell Computers where they highlighted the first ever jewelry collection using gold from their recycled DELL technology, designed by Nikki. Her notable efforts in championing conservation and sustainability are also seen through her work as a board member of the Environmental Media Association, a UN Ambassador for the Environment, as well as a board member for the Ian Somerhalder Foundation where she served as Vice President for 5 years, which recently donated $1 million in 2021 to The Jane Goodall Institute to support global wildlife and environment conservation.

Whitney Hollington Matewe

Photo Editor, Time Magazine

Whitney Hollington Matewe is a queer photo editor of color, currently at TIME Magazine. Prior to joining the photo department at TIME, Whitney worked at National Geographic Magazine, The New Yorker Magazine, The Intercept and several Condé Nast publications creating work for GQ, Teen Vogue and others. She strives to explore the human experience with the goal of celebrating and amplifying underrepresented voices and marginalized communities.

Gulnara Lyabib Samoilova

Founder, Women Street Photographers

Gulnara Lyabib Samoilova is an American photographer with over 40 years of experience in documentary, street, and fine art photography. She graduated from the International Center of Photography in 1994 and worked as a staff photo editor and photojournalist at the Associated Press. 

Throughout her career, Gulnara has received numerous awards for her photographs, including first prize from the World Press Photo. Gulnara's work is part of collections at the Museum of the City of New York, Houston Museum of Fine Arts, and New York Historical Society. 

She is the founder of Women Street Photographers, an online and in-person global community, as well as an artist residency in New York City. Additionally, she is the author of the best-selling book 'Women Street Photographers' (2021, Prestel) and has an upcoming portfolio book set to be released by Peanut Press Books in 2023. With her vast experience and expertise, Gulnara has organized and curated over 30 successful exhibitions
in four continents, including the first Women Street Photographers and Leica Women Foto Project Summit in New York City. This three-day event featured group and solo exhibitions, grants, panel discussions, and photo walks, and showcased the work of 75 female
photographers from 33 countries. In addition to her curatorial work, Gulnara is also an inspirational speaker, guest judge (Lens Culture, Lucie Photo Book Prize, UNESCO) and portfolio reviewer ( Arles Les Rencontres de la Photographie).

Renee Mussai

Artistic Director, The Walther Collection

Renée Mussai a curator-scholar with a special interest in African and Afro-diasporic lens-based Black feminist and queer visual arts practices. The former Senior Curator and Head of Collection at Autograph, London for more than two decades, she is currently artistic director at The Walther Collection, a New York / Neu-Ulm based arts foundation. Since 2009, Mussai has organized numerous solo and group exhibitions
internationally, and published widely on photography, visual culture and curatorial activism. She is research associate at the Visual Identities in Art and Design Research Centre, University of Johannesburg; associate lecturer at University of the Arts London; and former guest curator and non-resident fellow at the Hutchins Center for African & African American Research at Harvard University. Mussai recently served as co-curator
for R/evolutions’, the 14th edition of PhotoIreland 2023. Her past books include the award-winning monograph; Lina Iris Viktor: Some Are Born to Endless Night—Dark Matter’ (Autograph, 2020), and forthcoming publications "Eyes that Commit" (Prestel, 2024) and the second volume of Zanele Muholi's critically acclaimed monograph "Somnyama Ngonyama, Hail the Dark Lioness' (Aperture, 2023/24).

Jennifer Pastore

Creative Consultant
former Executive Photo Director
at WSJ. Magazine

Jennifer Pastore is an award winning visual director, curator and creator with over twenty years of experience working primarily in magazines. Most recently, Jennifer was the executive photography director of WSJ. The Wall Street Journal Magazine for over ten years. Previous publications include Harper’s Bazaar, Teen Vogue and T: The New York Times Style Magazine. 

In 2022, Jennifer was awarded The Rome Prize in design at the American Academy in Rome where she worked on a mixed media narrative project incorporating textiles and photography. In addition, Jennifer curated a show featuring the work of photographer Liana Miuccio and writer Jhumpa Lahiri at the Galleria d’Arte Moderna in Rome. 

Jennifer has taught and lectured in the photography programs of The School of Visual Arts, Parsons School of Design, Rhode Island School of Design, Red Hook Labs and The Danish School of Media and Journalism in Copenhagen and Oslo.

Her work has been recognized by American Photography, ASME: The American Society of Magazine Editors, The Society of Publication Designers,
Graphis and Photo District News. …”

Marissa Roth

Pulitzer Prize-winning Photojournalist

Marissa Roth is a Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist, and documentary photographer, born and raised in Los Angeles. She was part of The Los Angeles Times staff that won the Prize for Best Spot News, for coverage of the 1992 Los Angeles riots. Her assignments for other prestigious publications, including The New York Times, have taken her around the world, where she photographed stories encompassing social, political, and cultural subjects.

To date, Roth’s global documentary project, One Person Crying: Women and War, spans 38-years of her photography addressing how women have been directly impacted by war and conflict. An exhibition of this work debuted at The Museum of Tolerance/Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles in 2012
and has been showcased internationally as a traveling exhibition. A book is forthcoming.

Her published books include Infinite Light: A Photographic Meditation on Tibet, with a foreword by His Holiness the Dalai Lama; Burning Heart: A Portrait of The Philippines; and The Crossing, a poetic photographic study of the Atlantic Ocean.

Witness to Truth, a portrait series of Holocaust survivors commissioned by The Museum of Tolerance/Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles, spans 15 years of her work and contains 110 photographs that are on permanent exhibition at the museum.

Roth’s work has been widely exhibited and is held in both public and private collections. In addition, she is a curator, lecturer, and teacher and continues to work on her personal projects as a photographer.

Roth is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society in London and the Royal Photographic Society in England. She was granted a Global Talent visa by Arts Council England and resides in London.

Sara Rumens

Features Picture Editor at The Times

Sara Rumens is the Features Picture Editor at The Times, commissioning photographers internationally for the supplements within the newspaper and online. Her background is in magazine photography - she was part of the launch team for Grazia in the UK. Previously Sara spent seven years as editorial director at Magnum Photos following her early informative years in New York working on magazines such as Interview and Rolling Stone. Since first gaining her post graduate degree at LCC in Photojournalism, she now returns to lecture and conduct portfolio reviews there as well as a range of other courses including the Magnum Professional Practice Workshops. She has served as judge on several international competitions including Amnesty International Media Awards, Leica Women Foto Project,The Irish Press Awards and the PX3 Prix in Paris.

Artemis Moshtaghian

News Editor and Producer at CNN

Artemis Moshtaghian is a News Editor and Producer at CNN covering major breaking news events in the U.S. and around the world. A distinguished Iranian-American journalist with over a decade of experience reporting on everything from politics and health to sports and entertainment, her expertise and foremost interest lies in human rights and international affairs.

Her coverage of last year's pivotal uprising in Iran following protests over the death of 22-year-old Kurdish-Iranian woman Mahsa Jina Amini, earned her two Emmy-nominations and several broadcast and digital media awards. Artemis was at the helm of CNN investigations to uncover details of Iran’s brutal repression, and her reporting exposed the regime’s systemic response of wide scale arrests, unjust executions, as well as severe torture and rape against jailed protesters. Her work continues to center around elevating different voices, especially those of women, to help shed light on inequality and injustice through impactful reporting.

Jessica Dimson

Deputy Director of Photography
at NY Times Magazine

Jessica Dimson is the deputy director of photography at The New York Times Magazine where she conceptualizes and produces photography for special issues, covers, photo essays and features. She has also worked as a photo editor on the National and Metro desks at The Times and was also the photo editor for the 2016 presidential campaign. Previously she was a photo editor at Vanity Fair and Departures magazine.

Her work has been recognized by World Press Photo, the Society of Publication Designers, American Photography, the Art Directors Club, and the Pictures of the Year International.