Nathalie Bertrams is a journalist and photographer covering under-reported environmental and social issues. She publishes in international media such as Süddeutsche Zeitung, Al Jazeera, BBC, The Guardian and the Mail & Guardian. She is a National Geographic Explorer, a Fellow of the Robert Bosch Foundation and the Earth Journalism Network and has received reporting grants from the Pulitzer Centre on Crisis Reporting, Free Press Unlimited, Fonds BJP and the European Journalism Center.

Study

1996 – 02    Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, Germany
1997 – 98    San Francisco Art Institute, USA
1988 – 93    Akademie Beeldende Kunsten Maastricht, Netherland

Grants/ Awards

2020   Renovabis/ Hoffnung für Osteuropa – Research Prize Eastern Europe
           Fonds Bijzondere Journalistieke Projecten – Reporting grant
2019   Reporters in the Field – Fellowship, Robert Bosch Foundation
           Earth Journalism Network – Reporting grant
           Kolga Tbilisi Photo Awards– Shortlist
           Fonds BJP – grant
           Free Press Unlimited – grant
2018   National Geographic Society – Storytelling grant
           European Journalism Center – Global Health Journalism grant
           Free Press Unlimited – Reporting Grant
           Hostwriter Story Prize – winner
2017   Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting – Grant
           Hostwriter Story Prize, 2nd place
           Stiftung Kunstfonds – Project grant
2016   Hostwriter Prize – Finalist
           Martin Lagois Photo Prize – Finalist
           Kuala Lumpur International Photoawards – Finalist
           Kolga Tbilisi Photo Awards– Shortlist
2015   Lorenzo Natali Media Prize – EU prize for journalism
           Reisebank travel photography award – winner
           Felix Schoeller Photo Awards – Shortlist & Nominee
           Humanity Photo Awards, Beijing – Performance Award
           Athens Photo Festival, Greece – Shortlist
2013   Joan Wakelin Bursary, Royal Photographic Society, London – Finalist
2011   World Photography Awards – Commended Photographer

Exhibitions

2019   OSTRALE Biennale – Historische Tabakfabrik, Dresden
           Kolga Tbilisi Photo Awards – Tbilisi, Georgia
           Migrants – Gallery West, London
2018   found a mentalism II, Saint James Cavalier, Malta
2017   What does peace look like? – UNESCO headquarters, Paris
           Wasser – Kunstverein Bad Nauheim
           OSTRALE’Biennale – Dresden
           [Passant souviens-toi, dit Sœurette] – Médiathèque des Diasporas, Cotonou, Benin
           Kontinuum – Betonbox, Düsseldorf,
           Kontinuum II – Alfred Institute, Tel Aviv, Israel
2016   Auf der Flucht – St.Egidien, Nürnberg
           Realpraesenz – Betonbox, Düsseldorf
           Kuala Lumpur Photo Awards – Whitebox Gallery, Kuala Lumpur
           Migrants – Gallery on the Corner, London
           Kolga Tbilisi Photo Awards – Tbilisi, Georgia
           Klassentreffen – Schloss Reuschenberg, Neuss
           Clearing – Alfred Institute, Tel Aviv, Israel
2015   Lichtung – Betonbox, Düsseldorf
           Felix Schoeller Photo Awards – Cultural History Museum, Osnabrück
           Bombensicher – Betonbox, Düsseldorf
2014   Kinolog: fremdartig – Schikaneder Cinema, Vienna
           Kunstpunkte – Betonbox, Düsseldorf
2013   Ostrale‘013 – Dresden
           Endstation Frohe Zukunft – Galerie Nachtspeicher23, Hamburg
           Reactivation – Betonbox, Düsseldorf
2012   Deus Ex Machina – Manifest Gallery, Cincinnati, USA
           Kunstpunkte, Betonbox, Düsseldorf
           Cliffhanger – Galerie Minken & Palme, Berlin
2011   Ostrale‘011 – Zentrum für zeitgenössische Kunst, Dresden
           Climate Change in Africa – Heinrich Boell Foundation, Cancún, Mexico
2010   Copart – Cape Town, South Africa
           Ostrale‘010 – Zentrum für zeitgenössische Kunst, Dresden
           Evolution – bauraum, Köln
2009   Positionen09 – Seewerk, Moers
           Luftraum.Interferenz – FiftyFifty Galerie, Düsseldorf
2008   Collage – SOS-Art, Paris
           D21:Salon – D21 Kunstraum, Leipzig
2007   Straßenleben – FiftyFifty Galerie, Düsseldorf
           Nacht der Museen – FiftyFifty Galerie, Düsseldorf
2005   In Bewegung – Kunsthalle Gießen
           Into the Unknown – FiftyFifty Galerie, Düsseldorf
2003   Körperhaus, zeitraum_ex!t Büro für Kunst, Mannheim
2001   Wellness, PLUS, Düsseldorf
           Transit (II), Atelier am Eck, Düsseldorf
           Transit, Warehouse #20, Art Port Nagoya, Japan
           Ausfahrt, Kunstverein Oberhausen
2000   Het menselijk lichaam, Bonnefanten-Museum, Maastricht
           Compilation, PLUS, Düsseldorf
           Wasser/L’Eau, Musée de St. Paul de Vence
1999   PLUS, PLUS, Düsseldorf
1998   Het Groene Boek, De Bank, Enschede
           Group exhibition, Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris
           Rood El-Farag Cultural Institute Cairo, Egypt
1997   10 x 10, Kunstakademie Düsseldorf
1996   Spektakel 96: Photographie, Kunstakademie Düsseldorf
1994   Symposium, Thun, Switzerland
           Galerie Loehrl, Mönchengladbach
1993   Die Anderen Zehn, NeuerAachenerKunstverein, Aachen
           Galerie Tracé, Maastricht

Publications (Selection)

Al Jazeera, BBC, Courrier international, Dagbladet Information, De Groene Amsterdammer, Der Standard, Die Welt, Huffington Post, Internazionale, Irish Times, Lettre International, Mail & Guardian, MO*, Mongabay, New Internationalist, PRI/The World, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Sunday Times Ireland, Tages-Anzeiger, The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Wall Street Journal, Washington Post Magazine

Clients (Selection)

Greenpeace, Oxfam, GAGE/ODI, World Future Council, Fairtrade, GIZ, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Heinrich Böll Foundation, African Renewable Energy Alliance, Welthungerhilfe, Goethe Institute Ethiopia, Volkswagen

Articles (Selection)

The Guardian – Wildlife forensics: how a giant pangolin named Ghost could help save the species
Washington Post Magazine – Through the Eyes of Women
Mail & Guardian – The story of SA’s biggest power plant, and its little town
Coal Town – The quest for South Africa’s first post-Apartheid city
Süddeutsche Zeitung – Das geheime Leben des Pangolins
Mongabay – They survived centuries of elephant onslaught. Now climate change is killing these iconic baobabs
BBC – ‘After the coral ban, I lost everything’
De Groene Amsterdammer – Vissen op Nemo’s
Süddeutsche Zeitung – Das Leiden der Zierfische
De Groene Amsterdammer – De nasmaak van de dood
Al Jazeera – On the streets of DR Congo’s Goma, rap gives youth a voice
Tages-Anzeiger – Händewaschen und Fiebermessen
Süddeutsche Zeitung – Das Virus und der Krieg
De Groene Amsterdammer – Oorlog en Ebola vormen in Noord-Kivu een dodelijke mix
Al Jazeera –  ‘They believed I was cursed with blindness because God was angry’
Internazionale – Il gusto amaro della vaniglia
Courrier international – Enquête. Plongée dans le trafic de vanille à Madagascar
De Groene Amsterdammer – Vanillekoorts
The Guardian – Madagascan gold: meet the vanilla hustlers
Mail & Guardian – Fear sours the sweet scent of Madagascar’s success
New Internationalist – Smoke and Mirrors: Revealing Malawi’s untold health and environmental crisis
The Guardian – Illegal logging in Malawi: can clean cooking stoves save its forests?
Süddeutsche Zeitung – Offenes Feuer, zerstörte Gesundheit
Süddeutsche Zeitung – In der Giftküche von Malawi
MO* – Mondiaal Nieuws – Vrouwen roken zich dood, in de keuken
Mail & Guardian – Moz digs garimpeiros out of trouble

Books

2018   Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting: Toxic Planet
2017   Bertrams/Gazit: Outcast – Refugees in an Israeli detention camp
2016   International Journal of Media and Information Policy (MIPJ): Indigenous Edition
2013   Bertrams: Madagascar. Travel photography
2012   Bertrams/Neuberger: Forests for People – Rwanda’s Prized Forest Policy
           Bertrams: Crossing Borders – Vom Atlas zur Goldküste
           Bertrams: Crossing Borders – Vom Kap bis Kairo