Lou Dematteis

San Francisco Bay Area photojournalist and documentary photographer Lou Dematteis has covered issues of social, political, economic and environmental importance for the past 30 years. A former staff photographer for Reuters News Pictures, he was based in Managua, Nicaragua, from 1985 to 1990, where he covered the wars and civil unrest which raged in the region. He went on to serve ten years as the San Francisco photo bureau chief for Reuters. He has published three books and his photos have appeared in every major U.S. newspaper and in every major news magazine in the United States and Europe.

An award-winning photographer, he has received a citation from World Press Photo and his photos have been included in the New York Times and National Press Photographers Association Pictures of the Year. In 1990 he was named one of the top 80 photojournalists in the world. His work has been exhibited on four continents and in 2007 he received a grant from the Open Society Institute to exhibit his work from the Ecuadoran Amazon in the communities in Ecuador most affected by the contamination left in the region as a result of Texaco's oil extraction practices.

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