Kira Pollack is a leading creative director and photo editor known for pioneering new approaches to visual storytelling. Throughout her career, she has redefined how photography, emerging technology, and digital media intersect to expand the possibilities of visual journalism.
Currently, she is a 2025 Walter Shorenstein Media & Democracy Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School, exploring how AI-driven tools can deepen our understanding of visual history, support authorship and legacy, and provide new solutions for image analysis and discovery. She recently concluded a fellowship at Stanford and USC’s Starling Lab, where she led a pilot project applying archival protocols to preserve photojournalistic collections. As a Distinguished Fellow at Starling Lab, a research center anchored at Stanford Engineering School and USC Libraries, she focused on preserving and authenticating photojournalistic archives in the era of generative AI. Her research culminated in her Washington Post essay, “Photos Are Disappearing, One Archive at a Time.”
Previously, Pollack was Creative Director and Deputy Editor at Vanity Fair, where she oversaw more than 50 covers, collaborated with leading photographers and artists, and shaped the visual direction for The Great Fire, the special issue guest-edited by Ta-Nehisi Coates.
At TIME, where she spent nearly a decade, Pollack was Director of Photography and later Deputy Editor—one of the rare creative leaders to ascend to a top editorial position. She shaped the magazine’s editorial and visual strategy, overseeing a team of editors, photographers, and filmmakers while elevating new talent. Under her leadership, TIME produced landmark multimedia projects that redefined visual storytelling. The 100 Most Influential Photographs of All Time and Firsts—a series profiling trailblazing women including Oprah Winfrey, Aretha Franklin, and Hillary Clinton—spanned documentary films, interactive digital experiences, special issues, and hardcover books, reinforcing TIME’s leadership in multimedia journalism.
Pollack also led the visual direction of hundreds of TIME covers, defining the magazine’s photographic identity during a transformative era. She launched Red Border Films, TIME’s first in-house documentary film unit—later evolving into Time Studios—and created LightBox, an award-winning digital photography platform. Her work on Beyond 9/11, a multimedia documentary project featuring 46 short films and an HBO documentary, earned a News & Documentary Emmy Award. She also commissioned TIME’s World Press Photo of the Year-winning portrait of Bibi Aisha, the Afghan woman whose story became a global symbol of resilience.
Earlier in her career, Pollack was Deputy Photo Editor at The New York Times Magazine, where she helped produce major visual projects, including Obama’s People, a historic 60-page portrait portfolio published ahead of President Obama’s first inauguration.
Pollack’s work has been recognized with two Emmy Awards, a Lucie Award for Photo Editor of the Year, multiple Webby Awards, and five National Magazine Awards. She has served as a juror for World Press Photo, the Tribeca Film Festival, and the W. Eugene Smith Grant. Her TED Talk, “What Makes a Photograph Influential?”, has been widely viewed.
She is based in New York City.
Photo Credit: Peter Hapak
