Nathalie Bertrams is an award-winning freelance photographer and journalist who documents ecological and social conflicts. She publishes in international media such as Al Jazeera, The Guardian, BBC News, Süddeutsche Zeitung, De Groene Amsterdammer, NRC Handelsblad and Mongabay and makes documentary films for Arte/ZDF and Deutsche Welle. She is a 2018 and 2021 National Geographic Explorer, was awarded the 2016 Lorenzo Natali Media Prize by the European Commission, and was shortlisted for the Fetisov Journalism Awards for Outstanding Investigative Reporting in 2022.
Study
1996–02 Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, Germany (MFA)
1997–98 San Francisco Art Institute, USA
1988–93 Akademie Beeldende Kunsten Maastricht, NL (BA)
Grants
2022 IWMF – Howard G. Buffett Fund for Women Journalists
Free Press Unlimited – Travel grant
Journalismfund.eu – European Cross-Border Grant
2021 Fonds Bijzondere Journalistieke Projecten – Reporting grant
National Geographic Explorer – Storytelling grant
Fonds BJP – Reporting grant
2020 IJ4EU – Investigative journalism grant
Fonds BJP – Reporting grant
2019 Robert Bosch Foundation – Reporters in the Field
Earth Journalism Network – Reporting grant
Fonds BJP – Reporting grant
Free Press Unlimited – Travel grant
2018 National Geographic Explorer – Storytelling grant
European Journalism Center – Global Health grant
Free Press Unlimited – Reporting Grant
2017 Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting – Grant
Stiftung Kunstfonds – Project grant
2013 Joan Wakelin Bursary, Royal Photographic Society, London
Publications (selection)
De Groene Amsterdammer, In Ierland woedt een turfoorlog
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 (Fernsehreportage), 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, EU-investering moest de Roemeense natuur beschermen, maar …
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 save…
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 Pangolin
Mongabay – They survived centuries of elephant onslaught. Now climate change…
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
Media (Selection)
Arte/ZDF, Al Jazeera, BBC News, Chrismon, Courrier international, Deutsche Welle, De Groene Amsterdammer, Der Standard, Die Welt, Ethiopian Herald, Granta, Huffington Post, Information DK, 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 Ecologist, The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Wall Street Journal, Voice of America, Vreme, Washington Post
Awards
2022 Dejan Anastasijevic award, Serbia – Nomination
Superscrieri award, Romania – Winner
(Local news + Jury prize)
2021 Fetisov Journalism Awards, Switzerland – Shortlist
2020 Renovabis/N-ost – Research Prize Eastern Europe
2019 Kolga Tbilisi Photo Awards, Georgia – Shortlist
2018 Hostwriter Story Prize (1st)
2017 Hostwriter Story Prize (2nd)
2016 Hostwriter Story Prize – Finalist
Martin Lagois Photo Prize – Finalist
Kuala Lumpur International Photoawards – Finalist
Kolga Tbilisi Photo Awards– Shortlist
2015 European Commission – Lorenzo Natali Media Prize
Felix Schoeller Photo Awards – Shortlist & Finalist
Humanity Photo Awards, Beijing
2011 World Photography Awards – Commended Photographer
Clients
African Renewable Energy Alliance, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, BMZ, GAGE, GiZ, Goethe Institute, Greenpeace, Fairtrade International, Heinrich Böll Foundation, Max Havelaar, Overseas Development Institute (ODI), Oxfam, Rabobank, SVN Netherlands Development Organisation, Volkswagen AG, Welthungerhilfe, World Future Council
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
Exhibitions
2022 Common Ground – BOA | Bunker of Art, Aachen
2021 Menschenrechte – Kloster Schiffenberg, Gießen
The Renaissance Of Humility – Sankt Paulus, Brussels
2020 Parcours d’Artistes – St-Gilles/ Brussels
2019 Ostrale Biennale – Historische Tabakfabrik, Dresden
Kolga Tbilisi Photo Awards – Tbilisi, Georgia
Migrants: A Journey – 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, Malaysia
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 – Museum Osnabrück
Bombensicher – Betonbox, Düsseldorf
2014 Kinolog: fremdartig – Schikaneder Cinema, Vienna
Kunstpunkte – Betonbox, Düsseldorf
2013 Ostrale‘013 – Dresden
Endstation Frohe Zukunft – 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 – HBF, 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, France
2007 D21:SALON 2007, D21, Leipzig
Straßenleben, FiftyFifty-Galerie, Düsseldorf
2005 Nacht der Museen, FiftyFifty Galerie, Düsseldorf
Into the Unknown, FiftyFifty Galerie, Düsseldorf
2004 In Bewegung, Kunsthalle Gießen
2003 Körperhaus, zeitraum_ex!t Büro für Kunst, Mannheim
2002 Wellness, Kunstraum PLUS, Düsseldorf
2001 Transit (II), Atelier am Eck, Düsseldorf
Transit, Warehouse #20, Art Port Nagoya, Japan
Ausfahrt, Kunstverein Oberhausen
2000 Het menselijk lichaam, Bonnefanten-Museum, Maastricht
Compilation, Kunstraum PLUS, Düsseldorf
Wasser/L’Eau, Musée de St. Paul de Vence, France
1999 PLUS, Kunstraum PLUS, Düsseldorf
1998 Het Groene Boek, De Bank, Enschede, Netherlands
Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris, France
Cultural Institute Cairo, Egypt
1997 10 x 10, Kunstakademie Düsseldorf
1996 Spektakel 96: Photographie, Düsseldorf
1994 Symposium, Thun, Switzerland
Galerie Loehrl, Mönchengladbach
1993 Die Anderen Zehn, NeuerAachenerKunstverein, Aachen
Galerie Tracé, Maastricht
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