Finding the Frame: with Photojournalist Michael Robinson Chávez

A Leica Conversation with Washington Post Photojournalist Michael Robinson Chávez and Bill Shapiro.

Chavez will share a selection of images spanning his 28-year career in photography in this discussion with former Editor-in-Chief of LIFE magazine Bill Shapiro. The program will cover a wide range of topics including the importance of slowing down while on location, how to activate a frame, Chavez’s tips for parachuting into a new city, and what items he never travels without.

Recorded Live September 7th, 2023

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Guest Bio:
Michael Robinson Chávez, a two-time Pulitzer Prize winning photographer for The Washington Post, became seduced by photography while traveling through Peru with a borrowed camera in 1988. A native Californian, and half Peruvian, he previously worked with the Associated Press, The Boston Globe and The Los Angeles Times, and is a graduate of San Francisco State University.

Robinson Chávez has covered assignments in over 75 countries including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, climate change in Siberia, the collapse of Venezuela, violence in Mexico, tsunamis in Indonesia and Chile, the Egyptian revolution, gold mining in Peru and the 2006 Hezbollah/Israeli war.

He was part of a team from The Washington Post awarded a 2022 Pulitzer Prize Public Service Medal for coverage of the January 6th coup attempt on the US Capitol and in 2019 for Explanatory Journalism covering global climate change. He is also a three-time winner of the Robert F. Kennedy Award for Photojournalism and was named Photographer of the Year by PX3 Prix de la Photographie Paris in 2023 and Pictures of the Year International in 2020.

Robinson Chávez is a photo instructor with Leica Akademie USA and the Foundry Photojournalism Workshops. He also lectures at photography festivals and institutions worldwide. His photographs have been exhibited in France, Australia, Peru, Cuba, United States, Croatia, Slovakia, Georgia, India and Spain.

Host:
Bill Shapiro is the former Editor-in-Chief of LIFE magazine and the founding Editor-in-Chief of LIFE.com. He has written about photography for the New York Times Magazine, Vanity Fair, Esquire, The Atlantic, among others, and helps photographers create photo books. He is the co-author of Gus & Me, the best-selling children’s book he co-wrote with Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards. Bill lives in Taos, New Mexico; on Instagram, he’s @billshapiro