ABOUT ME

Nathalie Bertrams is a freelance photojournalist and National Geographic Explorer. She documents environmental conflicts, mainly across Africa. Nathalie’s work is published in media such as The Guardian, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Al Jazeera, The Washington Post Magazine, BBC News and De Groene Amsterdammer. She also makes TV reportages for ZDF/Arte.

Nathalie Bertrams received multiple grants and awards, such as from the Pulitzer Center, IJ4EU, Journalismfund, IWMF and National Geographic. She was shortlisted for the Fetisov Journalism Awards and won the Lorenzo Natali Media Prize. Her photographs are internationally exhibited in art shows. Nathalie studied Fine Arts in the Netherlands, the USA and Germany and has a master’s degree from Kunstakademie Düsseldorf.

Studies

1996–02  Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, Germany (MFA)
1997–98  San Francisco Art Institute, USA
1988–93  Akademie Beeldende Kunsten Maastricht, NL (BA)

Publications

Al Jazeera, Arte/ZDF, BBC News, Chrismon, Courrier international, Dagbladet Information, Deutsche Welle, De Groene Amsterdammer, Der Standard, Die Welt, Granta, Hinterlands Magazine, Huffington Post, Internazionale, Irish Times, La Corriere della Sera, Lettre International, Mail & Guardian, MO*, Mongabay, New Internationalist, NRC Handelsblad, PRI/The World, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Sunday Times, Tages-Anzeiger, The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Wall Street Journal, Voice of America, Vreme, Washington Post Magazine

Awards

2022 Superscrieri award, Romania – Winner, local news + jury prize
Dejan Anastasijevic award, Serbia – Nomination
2021 Fetisov Journalism Awards – Shortlist for Outstanding Investigative Reporting
2020 N-Ost/Renovabis – Research Prize Eastern Europe
2018 Hostwriter Story Prize – 1st place
2017 Hostwriter Story Prize – 2nd place
2016 Hostwriter Story Prize – Finalist
Martin Lagois Photo Prize – Finalist
Kuala Lumpur International Photoawards – Finalist
Kolga Tbilisi Photo Awards– Shortlist
2015 Lorenzo Natali Media Prize
Felix Schoeller Photo Awards – Shortlist & Finalist
Humanity Photo Awards, Beijing
Athens Photo Festival, Greece – Shortlist
2011 World Photography Awards – Commended Photographer

Grants

2022 Journalismfund – Earth Investigations Programme
IWMF – Howard G. Buffett Fund for Women Journalists
Journalismfund – European Cross-Border Grant
Fonds Bijzondere Journalistieke Projecten – Reporting grant
2021 National Geographic Explorer – Ukraine & Romania
Fonds Bijzondere Journalistieke Projecten – Reporting grant
2020 IJ4EU – Investigative Reporting Grant
2019 Robert Bosch Foundation – Reporters in the Field fellowship
Fonds Bijzondere Journalistieke Projecten – Reporting grant
Free Press Unlimited – Reporting grant
Earth Journalism Network – Reporting grant
2018 National Geographic Explorer – South Africa
European Journalism Center – Global Health grant
Free Press Unlimited – Reporting Grant
2017 Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting – Reporting grant
Stiftung Kunstfonds – Project grant

Books

2018 Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting: Toxic Planet
2017 Bertrams/Gazit: Outcast – Refugees in Israel
2016 International Journal of Media and Information Policy (MIPJ): Indigenous Edition
2015 World Future Council: Kinderrechte
2013 Bertrams: Madagascar. Travel photography
2012 Bertrams/Neuberger: Forests for People – Insights into Rwanda’s Forest Policy
Bertrams: Crossing Borders – Vom Atlas zur Goldküste
Bertrams: Crossing Borders – Vom Kap bis Kairo

NGO + Agencies

African Renewable Energy Alliance, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Bloomberg, BMZ, GAGE, GiZ, Goethe Institute, Greenpeace, Fairtrade International, Heinrich Böll Foundation, Kambashu Institute, Max Havelaar, Overseas Development Institute (ODI), Oxfam, Rabobank, SVN Netherlands Development Organisation, UNOPS, Volkswagen, Welthungerhilfe, World Future Council

Associations

Reporters Without Borders, International Press Institute (IPI), Frontline Freelance Register, Women Photograph, Freelens

Articles

NRC, Zeewierkoorts: grote plantages kunnen het ecosysteem van de Noordzee verstoren
Mongabay, Europe considers large-scale seaweed farming; environmental effects unknown
Süddeutsche Zeitung, Neue grüne Welle
BBC News, The plans for giant seaweed farms in European waters
De Groene Amsterdammer, De schimmige wereld van de handel in zangvogels
De Groene Amsterdammer, In Ierland woedt een turfoorlog
Deutsche Welle, Lithium, Geld, Politik: Ein Dorf in Serbien kämpft gegen ein Bergwerk
De Groene Amsterdammer, Servië staat niet te koop
Vreme, Da li je Rio Tinto zaista otišao
Deutsche Welle Documentary, Big business with wildflowers – snowdrops from Georgia
Vreme, Pritajena kompanija, skrivena država
Süddeutsche Zeitung, Wo unsere Schneeglöckchen herkommen
Deutsche Welle, Living and working on Georgia’s largest garbage dump
Arte (TV Reportage), Re: Schneeglöckchen aus Georgien
De Groene Amsterdammer, Witte Bloemen van de Zwarte Zee
Süddeutsche Zeitung, EU-Gelder für das rumänische Donaudelta eingefroren
Süddeutsche Zeitung, Im Sumpf
De Groene Amsterdammer, De Georgische oppositie kampeert voor het parlement
NRC Handelsblad, 1,1 miljard aan EU-geld niet besteed aan Donaudelta
NRC Handelsblad, Hoe de EU-miljoenen voor de donaudelta weglekten
Info Sud-Est, Where did the EU’s billion euros for the Danube Delta actually go?
G4Media, Unde a ajuns miliardul de euro de la UE pentru Delta Dunării
OZY, Crime, Corona, Copper and Trouble in Zambia
Mongabay, With a drastic decline in tropical fruit, Gabon’s mega-gardeners go hungry
Sunday Times, The gangsters who made a president
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 (Website) – The quest for South Africa’s first post-Apartheid city
Süddeutsche Zeitung – Phantom in Not
Tagesanzeiger – Das geheime Leben des Pangolins
Mongabay – They survived centuries of elephant onslaught. Now climate change is killing baobabs
BBC – ‘After the coral ban, I lost everything’
Tages-Anzeiger, Das Leiden der Zierfische
De Groene Amsterdammer – Vissen op Nemo’s
MO*, Hoe aquaria wereldwijd het koraalrif bedreigen
Süddeutsche Zeitung – Ausverkauf am Riff
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 – 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