Jim Hubbard
Jim Hubbard is a highly regarded documentary photographer who received the prestigious Lewis Hine Distinguished Service Award from the National Child Labor Committee in 2007. He was also honored with the Leica Award for Excellence in 1988 for his impactful series on homelessness in America. Jim is a Fellow at the USC Annenberg School for Communications and a co founder of the USC Institute for Photographic Empowerment. His outstanding work has garnered three Pulitzer Prize nominations, spanning various subjects such as homelessness (1987), the flash flood in Rapid City, SD (1972) and his coverage of Wounded Knee (1973).
Jim holds both Master of Arts and Master of Divinity degrees. Jim lists Michael Jones, Joe McNally and Ansel Adams among his favorite photographers.
Throughout his career, he has been recognized with over 100 awards from esteemed organizations like the National Press Photographers Association (NPPA), White House News Photographers Association (WHNPA) and United Press International (UPI). His photographs have been widely featured both nationally and internationally across various forms of media, including print and television. In addition to his photographic achievements, Jim authored the book “American Refugees” published by University of Minnesota Press in 1991, with a foreword by Jonathan Kozol.
Jim Hubbard’s journey as a photojournalist began during the turbulent 1960s when he started capturing significant international events such as the Detroit riots in 1967 as one of his earliest major assignments.
His photographs have appeared in most major print publications worldwide, capturing significant events such as the 1972 Munich Olympics and massacre, the 1979 Cambodian genocide under the Pol Pot regime, a cyclone near Calcutta, India that claimed 10,000 lives and the Wounded Knee siege in 1973. During his 16 year tenure with United Press International (UPI) as part of the White House Press Corps, Jim also had the opportunity to photograph five U.S. Presidents and cover numerous presidential campaigns, including accompanying Bobby Kennedy shortly before his tragic death in 1968.
After working as a professional photojournalist for over two decades, Hubbard established Shooting Back in Washington D.C., aiming to empower marginalized youth by teaching them how to capture their own realities through photography. The innovative nature of Jim’s approach has been recognized and discussed in various literature and academic journals focusing on photography, visual sociology and contemporary art. Additionally, he has authored four books including “Shooting Back” (1991) with a foreword by Dr. Robert Coles and “Shooting Back from the Reservation” (1994) with a foreword by Dennis Banks.
Shooting Back’s photographs have gained significant attention and popularity, making them some of the most widely seen and talked about images in the history of modern photography.