Open Call: HIDDEN BEAUTY

Ami Vitale

Photographer, Filmmaker and Founder of Vital Impacts

Ami Vitale’s career stands as a testament to her deep dedication to documenting and addressing global crises. As an acclaimed National Geographic photographer, writer, and documentary filmmaker, as well as the founder of Vital Impacts, Ami has consistently spotlighted critical issues affecting our world. Her journey began in conflict zones, where she observed firsthand how environmental degradation—from resource scarcity to climate change—intensifies human suffering and conflict. This early exposure shaped her understanding of the profound connections between human and environmental crises.

Vitale’s work focuses on the stories of individuals living on the front lines of war, climate change, and extinction, who refuse to let cataclysm define their futures. Through her compelling journalism, she highlights stories of resilience and innovation, emphasizing the delicate balance between humanity and wildlife and the urgent need for conservation. Vitale’s work connects viewers to critical local conservation issues of global importance, underscoring our interconnectedness with one another and the natural world.

In addition to her journalism and filmmaking, Vitale is the founder and Executive Director of Vital Impacts, a non-profit organization that leverages the power of art to inspire and mobilize youth as agents of change. Vitale and her non-profit have raised over $5 million to support vital conservation projects.

Ami is an honorary fellow of the Royal Photographic Society and a recipient of the prestigious Lucie Humanitarian Award, the Missouri Honor Media for Distinguished Service, and an inductee into the North Carolina Media and Journalism Hall of Fame. She has also received the Daniel Pearl Award for Outstanding Reporting, been named Magazine Photographer of the Year at the International Photographer of the Year awards, and is a six-time recipient of World Press Photo awards.

Instyle magazine featured her alongside Jane Goodall and Ruth Bader Ginsburg in its series “Fifty Badass Women,” celebrating women who exemplify courage and action. Ami is currently serving as Conservation International’s 2023/2024 Lui-Walton Innovators Fellow. A sought-after speaker, she continues to share her experiences and insights with audiences worldwide, and in 2025, she will be featured on the National Geographic Channel Explorer TV series.

Sarah Leen

For nearly 20 years Sarah Leen worked as an independent photographer for National Geographic magazine until 2004 when she joined the NGM staff as a Senior Photo Editor. In 2013, Leen became the first female Directory of Photography for National Geographic Magazine and Partners. As a photographer she published 16 National Geographic magazine stories, one book and produced five covers for NGM. She has won numerous awards for both her photography and photo editing from the Pictures of the Year and the World Press Photo Awards and the International Photography Awards.

Leen teaches visual storytelling and photo editing at the Eddie Adams and Missouri Photo workshops and her own Female Perspectives in Visual Storytelling. She has edited ten photobooks since 2020 including Ukraine: A War Crime, the POY Photobook of the Year in 2023, HABIBI by Antonio Facciolongo, We Cry in Silence by Smita Sharma the 2022 Lucie Book Award for Independent Book, The Phoenician Collapse by Diego Ibarra Sanchez and A Troubled Home by Anush Babajanyan.

Leen is the Co-Chairperson of the Board of the International League of Conservation Photographers, is a member of the Lucie Awards Board of Advisors and in 2024 she received an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from her alma mater the University of Missouri School of Journalism.

Cat Jimenez

Ms. Jimenez has worked at the intersection of photography, technology and culture as producer, programmer and curator for over 20 years.

She is the former Brand Studio’s Head of Production for Lucid Motors where she was responsible for overseeing all creative content production from TV commercials and social-first content to developing a custom font for the Brand. Prior to Lucid Motors, she held the role of Executive Producer for Imprint Projects, a creative agency. She was responsible for producing short-form content, social content, printed matter and experiential activations for brands such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Levi’s, Sonos, Everlane, method, Dropbox, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Allbirds and many more.

Prior to her post at Imprint Projects, she led the Los Angeles-based, non-profit organization, the Lucie Foundation, as the Executive Director. In 2009, Ms. Jimenez co-founded the annual, city-wide initiative, Month of Photography Los Angeles which presents 30 days of programming. MOPLA’s mission is to create a comprehensive, citywide, collaborative effort that brings together media partners, galleries, institutions and museums in celebration of the photographic form. From outdoor building projections, artist talks and lectures, to exhibitions and screenings, MOPLA provides a platform for the enthusiast, collectors, emerging photographers, and the seasoned and master shooters. 2019 marked the last year of the festival.

Since 2015 to date, she has acted as the Photography Director for the National YoungArts Foundation Young Arts Week in Los Angeles and now sits on the Photography Panel for Young Arts Week in Miami, Florida. The organization’s mission is to identify the most accomplished young artists in the visual, literary and performing arts, and provides them with creative and professional development opportunities throughout their careers. Notable alumnae include poet laureate Amanda Gorman, Viola Davis, Doug Aitken, Jason Moran, Billy Porter, Kerry Washington and hundreds more.

Most recently, Ms. Jimenez has created a new photography festival in Los Angeles entitled DALA, which will debut in the Fall of 2025.

Lynn Johnson

Photojournalist and Educator

Lynn Johnson photographs the human condition. Johnson has worked for LIFE and Sports Illustrated and published 40 feature stories in National Geographic Magazine. She is known for finding beauty and meaning in elusive, difficult subjects—threatened languages, zoonotic disease, the gender spectrum, and the many mysteries of the brain—Science of Touch, Blast Force Injury and Profound Autism. Hate Kills, her master’s thesis as a Knight Fellow at Ohio University, probed the impact of hate crimes. And at Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Public Communications, she helped develop CORE— a program that challenged master’s students to push past their comfort levels. She is the recipient of numerous awards and grants including the Robert F. Kennedy Award, the Chris Hondros Fund, and has been a Pulitzer finalist on two occasions.