Nathalie Bertrams is a freelance journalist and photographer covering under-reported environmental issues. Her work is published in international media such as The Washington Post, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Al Jazeera, The Guardian, BBC, and Mongabay. Nathalie is a 2018/2021 National Geographic Explorer, a Fellow of the Robert Bosch Foundation, and a member of the Earth Journalism Network. She has received multiple awards and reporting grants from the Pulitzer Centre on Crisis Reporting, IJ4EU, 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, Netherlands
Grants/ Awards
2021 National Geographic Explorer
2020 IJ4EU – Investigative journalism grant
Renovabis/ Hoffnung für Osteuropa – Research Prize Eastern Europe
Fonds BJP – 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 Explorer
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
2020
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)
Süddeutsche Zeitung, Im Sumpf
G4Media/Info Sud-Est, Where did the European Union’s billion euros for the Danube Delta actually go?
OZY, Crime, Corona, Copper and Trouble in Zambia
Mongabay, With a drastic decline in tropical fruit, Gabon’s rainforest 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 – 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