Two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer and picture editor Paula Nelson is a 30-year-career visual journalist, serving as photographer, picture editor, manager, leader and educator.
Nelson began her career as a staff photographer at The Dallas Morning News, where she covered a variety of assignments, from breaking news to sports to features and award-winning studio work. She also traveled to India, Thailand, Mexico, Russia, Latvia, Estonia, Cuba, around the country and around the state of Texas documenting long-term projects. Nelson and a small team of colleagues were awarded the 1994 Pulitzer Prize for Violence Against Women: A Question of Human Rights. After 13 years, she became a picture editor, shepherding an award-winning photography staff and earning her recognition as one of the top picture editors in the country.
After leaving Dallas, Nelson became the Page One picture editor at The Boston Globe in 2002, editing tens of thousands of images to illustrate daily special sections during the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars. She also worked to define the visual philosophy of both print and online publications, and to improve the quality of visuals produced by the staff. Nelson quickly became director of photography, managing an award-winning staff of 31 still and video visual producers and eventually became The Globe’s first and only assistant managing editor for photography, the highest rank in the newsroom for a visual professional. In 2014, The Globe was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for its multimedia coverage of the marathon bombing, which included visuals produced under Nelson’s leadership.
Following a sabbatical, Nelson became a fellow at the S.I. Newhouse School of Visual Communications at Syracuse University and earned a Master of Science in Multimedia, Photography and Design in May of 2021. Her three-part master’s project includes a book she edited and designed, Analog: Collected Family Photographs; a 17-minute audio story, A Box of Photographs, the stories behind family photographs that can be heard on PRX; and a website: https://www.paulafnelson.com/.
With her extensive professional experience in storytelling and visuals and travel to 51 countries, as a professor of practice in the Visual Communications department at Newhouse, Nelson teaches visual storytelling, journalism, photography skills, and picture editing and sequencing for multiple outcomes.
Two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer and picture editor Paula Nelson is a 30-year-career visual journalist, serving as photographer, picture editor, manager, leader and educator.
Nelson began her career as a staff photographer at The Dallas Morning News, where she covered a variety of assignments, from breaking news to sports to features and award-winning studio work. She also traveled to India, Thailand, Mexico, Russia, Latvia, Estonia, Cuba, around the country and around the state of Texas documenting long-term projects. Nelson and a small team of colleagues were awarded the 1994 Pulitzer Prize for Violence Against Women: A Question of Human Rights. After 13 years, she became a picture editor, shepherding an award-winning photography staff and earning her recognition as one of the top picture editors in the country.
After leaving Dallas, Nelson became the Page One picture editor at The Boston Globe in 2002, editing tens of thousands of images to illustrate daily special sections during the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars. She also worked to define the visual philosophy of both print and online publications, and to improve the quality of visuals produced by the staff. Nelson quickly became director of photography, managing an award-winning staff of 31 still and video visual producers and eventually became The Globe’s first and only assistant managing editor for photography, the highest rank in the newsroom for a visual professional. In 2014, The Globe was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for its multimedia coverage of the marathon bombing, which included visuals produced under Nelson’s leadership.
Following a sabbatical, Nelson became a fellow at the S.I. Newhouse School of Visual Communications at Syracuse University and earned a Master of Science in Multimedia, Photography and Design in May of 2021. Her three-part master’s project includes a book she edited and designed, Analog: Collected Family Photographs; a 17-minute audio story, A Box of Photographs, the stories behind family photographs that can be heard on PRX; and a website: https://www.paulafnelson.com/.
With her extensive professional experience in storytelling and visuals and travel to 51 countries, as a professor of practice in the Visual Communications department at Newhouse, Nelson teaches visual storytelling, journalism, photography skills, and picture editing and sequencing for multiple outcomes.