Tamara Merino is a National Geographic Explorer, documentary photographer, and visual storyteller focusing on human rights, social change, and the formation of identity. Her particular focus on the lives of people who live underground has brought her in touch with far-flung subterranean communities, from the Australian outback to caves in Spain. One of her photographs was included in National Geographic magazine’s January 2021 “The Year in Pictures; special issue. Her work appears worldwide in print and online publications, including National Geographic, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Der Spiegel, The New Yorker, 6 Mois, The Wall Street Journal, and Bloomberg, among others. She is a member of Women Photograph and Ayün Fotógrafas.
Merino’s honors include the 2020 Emerging Explorer National Geographic Award, the Magnum Foundation’s 2020 Inge Morath Award. In (YEAR), she was selected for the World Press Photo 6×6 Global Talent Program, ARTPIL’s 30 Under 30/Women Photographers, and was named one of PDN’s 30 New and Emerging Photographers to Watch. She received the Chris Hondros Fund Award, the Young Leader Award by El Mercurio, and a fellowship at the International Women’s Media Foundation (IWMF). Merino participated in the World Press Photo Joop Swart Latin America Masterclass and in the New York Times Portfolio Review.
She has exhibited her photographs at Photoville in New York, the Bronx Documentary Center in New York, and the Bergen Gallery in New Jersey. Abroad, she has shown her work at the Yangon Photo Festival in Myanmar, the Lumix Photo Festival in Germany, the Athens Photo Festival in Greece, Foto Prensa in Chile, the Maciel Foto Festival and Salón del Sur in Argentina, and by World Press Photo in the United States, Germany, and Myanmar.
Merino also teaches workshops on documentary photography and storytelling in various countries for National Geographic Learning.
