MELINA MARA

Melina Mara is a Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist whose career spans more than 35 years documenting American politics and issue stories that shape our nation. The daughter of a CBS cameraman and a passionate and supportive mother, Mara studied political science at Sarah Lawrence College, where she served as class president and interned for former US Representative Bella Abzug on international women’s rights issues. After exploring careers in law and teaching, she refocused on photojournalism and enrolled in the graduate program at theUniversity of Missouri School of Journalism, working for newspapers and magazines across the country before joining The Washington Post in 2003.

In 2001, Mara began photographing the thirteen women serving in the U.S. Senate, persuading a majority of them to allow unprecedented behind-the-scenes access at a time when access to national politicians was increasingly controlled. The resulting exhibition, Changing the Face of Power: Women in the U.S. Senate, opened at the Smithsonian Institution in 2003 and was viewed by over 500,000 people before embarking on a national tour. The photographs were later published as a book by the University of Texas Press, featuring contributions from journalist Cokie Roberts and interviews with the senators by veteran White House correspondent Helen Thomas. Mara’s photographs from the project were deeded to the University of Texas at Austin’s Dolph Briscoe Center for American History.

Since 2003, Mara has served as a national political photojournalist at The Washington Post, where she documents the halls of power on Capitol Hill and at the White House, campaign trails across America, and issue stories around the world. Her work has earned numerous honors, including first place in the Political Portfolio category at the White House News Photographers Association’s 2017 Eyes of History Still Contest.

In 2006, Mara co-founded Women Photojournalists of Washington (WPOW) alongside photojournalists Sarah Voisin and Allison Shelley. What began as quarterly potlucks has grown into a thriving nonprofit organization with over 500 members, offering grants, mentorship programs, annual exhibitions, and one of the most prestigious portfolio reviews in the country. WPOW’s members have received top professional recognition including Pulitzer Prizes, Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Awards, and World Press Photo awards.

Since 2018, Mara has served as The Washington Post’s West Coast photographer, living between Big Sur, California, and Washington, D.C., continuing to cover politics throughout the United States and around the world while documenting critical environmental and social issues along the Pacific coast.