David Maris, Photographer of 'Portraits of a New Beginning'

David Maris has worked as a photographer in both print and digital media since 1997, beginning his career as a photographer for the Venezuelan newspaper "El Nacional".

He skillfully transitioned from hard news for newspapers — covering plane crashes, protests and coups — to more contemplative pieces for magazines, where he revisited

studio lighting and the foundational elements of his fine arts training.

In portrait photography, he found the perfect fusion of these two worlds. Writers, artists, models, chefs, presidents, homeless people and tycoons have ed through his lens, capturing a stage in the public life of his country.

He has lived in the United States since 2015. When he took the portraits for this book, he was working as a photo editor for Univision Noticias, where he encountered the richness of the migrant world: the border, the wall, the desert and the suffering. He also developed in-depth photo stories and covered the U.S. political cycle.

In 2018, while at Univision, he was part of the team that won the Ortega y Gasset Award for Best Multimedia Coverage with the piece “Mejor vete, Cristina,” which tells the story of a successful undocumented immigrant chef. He is currently a photo editor at "The New York Times".

Maris’ camera has captured everyone from Marcel Marceau to Kate del Castillo, from Vice President Kamala Harris to the young survivors of the Parkland shooting.

Maris acknowledges that journalism has taught him to think quickly, to adapt and to go to the other side with his subjects. He says some of his best images were captured in minutes on an ordinary street, while others took hours in a studio.

He learned “to keep moving, to make the best of what you have — every day.”

Go to the homepage of the book “Portraits of a New Beginning.”