Meridith Kohut
Women Photograph
Houston, TX, USA
Meridith Kohut (b.1983, USA) is an award-winning photojournalist who has documented humanitarian issues and global health in Latin America for the foreign press since 2007. Her Venezuela crisis work has resulted in dozens of front-page stories published in The New York Times, and is widely recognized as the largest and most comprehensive photographic archive of the crisis made by a single photographer. Her coverage has been recognized by The Overseas Press Club, The George Polk Journalism Awards and Pictures of The Year International. Her 5-month investigation and photo essay that exposed that hundreds of children had died from severe child malnutrition in public hospitals was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Feature Photography in 2018. She earned a Courage in Journalism Award in 2018 from the International Women’s Media Foundation.
Kohut embedded for months on the frontline of the COVID-19 pandemic, documenting the epicenters in New York City and in Los Angeles County. She has also produced in-depth photo essays about climate migration issues in Central America and in The United States, labor rights and cholera outbreaks in Haiti, maternal death and human rights abuses in Venezuela, war widows entering the workforce in Syria, and gang violence and prison overcrowding in El Salvador.
She is a regular contributor to The New York Times. Her photographs have also been published by National Geographic, Leica, TIME Magazine, National Public Radio, The Washington Post Magazine and Der Spiegel. They have been exhibited at Visa pour L'Image, Sotheby’s London, The Annenberg Space for Photography, Columbia University, The Leica Gallery Salzburg & Photoville in Brooklyn, New York.
Kohut is a graduate of the University of Texas' School of Journalism, the 2007 Eddie Adams Workshop and the 2015 World Press Photo Masterclass in Latin America.
She is available for assignments throughout Latin America, the Caribbean and the USA.
2020 - The Overseas Press Club Awards, 2020 - Dart Awards for Excellence in Coverage of Trauma, 2018 - The Pulitzer Prizes - Finalist, 2018 - Courage in Journalism Award , 2017 - The Overseas Press Club Awards, 2017 - Visa pour L'Image Int'l Photojournalism Festival, 2017 - George Polk Journalism Award, 2017 - Chris Hondros Fund Award
- Audio capture
- Breaking news
- Editorial
- Environment
- Interview
- Military embed
- Portrait
- Reporting
- Underwater
- Video capture
- Video editing
NYTIMES: The Battle for Venezuela
Meridith Kohut
CARACAS, Venezuela — Motley throngs of masked antigovernment protesters hurl rocks, fireworks and Molotov cocktails. The police and soldiers retaliate with tear gas, water cannon blasts, rubber bullets and buckshot.
An uprising is brewing in Venezuela.
Nearly every day for more than three months, thousands have taken to the streets to vent fury at President Nicolás Maduro and his increasingly repressive leadership.
These confrontations often turn into lopsided and sometimes lethal street brawls — more than 90 people have been killed and more than 3,000 arrested.
NATGEO: Desperate for a Cure
Meridith Kohut
Generations of Venezuelans have turned to the cult of María Lionza for its healing power, however religious leaders say never before have they experienced a boom like they have since the hospital crisis began. No national statistical data is kept to know exactly how much the increase has been, but all spiritual healers surveyed by National Geographic say they have seen a significant increase in patients, ranging between 30% to 200% each, respectively – they say their patients are primarily working class people turned away from public hospitals, who do not have the financial resources to travel outside of the country for medical attention.
NYTIMES: Venezuela's Crumbling Mental Hospitals
Meridith Kohut
The state-run psychiatric hospital here in Barquisimeto, Venezuela, has long been a forgotten place, filled with forgotten people.
But with Venezuela suffering from a severe economic crisis, this mental institution has almost no drugs to control the afflictions tormenting its patients.
The glue that keeps this hospital in order — the sedatives, tranquilizers and medications — is nearly all gone. In courtyards, women who are functional while medicated are now curled on the floor hallucinating, crying, screaming, rocking back and forth for hours.
