Sarah Leen
Editor . Teacher . Curator . Founder @ The Visual Thinking Collective / Based in Washington DC
In 2019, Sarah Leen founded The Visual Thinking Collective as a community for independent photo editors, teachers and visual managers to serve photographers, media, art and academic institutions, NGOs, and corporate clients in telling their stories in unique, authentic and highly visual ways.
In 2014, Sarah became the first female Directory of Photography for National Geographic Magazine and Visual Media. She led a team of photo editors, photo researchers, freelance photographers, staff studio photographers, and a photo engineer. She assigned all photographers, departmental budgets, and led the visual content for both the National Geographic magazine and the Nat Geo Traveler magazine.
For nearly 20 years prior, she worked as a freelance photographer for National Geographic magazine until 2004, when she joined the staff as a Senior Photo Editor. Leen published 16 photo stories and produced five covers for the magazine. Sarah has also won numerous awards for both her photography and photo editing from the NPPA, the Pictures of the Year and the World Press Photo Awards.
Leen teaches photography and photo editing at the Missouri Photo Workshops, the Maine Media Workshops, the Santa Fe Photographic Workshops, the Eddie Adams Workshop and Syracuse University. Mentorships are available through application and portfolio review.
Leen has juried numerous contests including Pictures of the Year International, LensCulture, Critical Mass, Photo Lucida, the FotoEvidence Book Award, the Carmignac Photojournalism Award, the Eugene Smith Grant in Humanistic Photography, the Getty Images Editorial Grants, the World Press Joop Swarts Masterclass and the Santa Fe Center Review.
She is an Affiliate of the International League of Conservation Photographers and is on the Advisory Council for the Eddie Adams Workshop. Leen has curated exhibitions at Photoville NYC, the Annenberg Space for Photography LA, LOOK3 and the National Geographic Museum.
Clients + Partners: National Geographic Society, VII Photo, Santa Fe Photo Workshops, Maine Photo Workshops, Eddie Adams Workshop.
CONTACT: SARAH@VISUALTHINKINGCOLLECTIVE.COM @ROSELEEN LINKEDIN