Darcy Marie Padilla (born 1965) is an American documentary and photojournalist who specializes in contemporary issues and long-term projects and is the recipient of three
World Press Photo
World Press Photo Foundation is an independent, non-profit organization based in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Founded in 1955, the organization is known for holding an annual press photography contest. Since 2011, World Press Photo has organized a ...
award for her work "The Julie Project".
Personal background
Padilla was born and raised in Northern California. She took up photography at the age of 12 when she got her first SLR camera and was editor for her school yearbook. She earned a BA in journalism and writing from
San Francisco State University
San Francisco State University (commonly referred to as San Francisco State, SF State and SFSU) is a public research university in San Francisco. As part of the 23-campus California State University system, the university offers 118 different ...
and an MFA from UC Davis. She started out as a photo intern at The New York Times, but turned a staff job to pursue an independent career and her own documentary projects. She resides in
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...
, CA and Madison, WI. She is a member Agence VU’ in Paris and currently lives in San Francisco.
Career
Early in her career she interned at many prestigious newspapers, including ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'' and ''
The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
''. She is a photographer for
Agence Vu
Agence Vu, (stylised as Agence VU and Agence VU') is a photography agency established in 1986 that has headquarters on Rue Saint-Lazare in Paris. It works with both photojournalists
Photojournalism is journalism that uses images to tell a news ...
.
Padilla also teaches photography at the college level. Her work focuses on social issues such as
urban poverty
Poverty is the state of having few material possessions or little
Padilla photographed Julie Baird for from the time she met her 1993 until Julie's death from AIDS in September 2010. "The Julie Project" follows the life of Julie Baird through raising her family, dealing with HIV/AIDS, struggling with a drug addiction, and death. The project lasted 18 years. The first series took second place in the 2011 World Press Photo contemporary issues competition. The second series, "Family Love, 1993-2014," won the 2015 World Press Photo Award and was presented with 30 images.
American Prisons
Padilla first started documenting prisoners in the AIDS ward of the state prison in
Vacaville, California
Vacaville is a city located in Solano County in Northern California. Sitting approximately from Sacramento and from San Francisco, it is within the Sacramento Valley. As of the 2020 census, Vacaville had a population of 102,386, making it t ...
in 1990. A series from that project over the course of one year was awarded with a prize from the Alexia Foundation.
World Press Photo
World Press Photo Foundation is an independent, non-profit organization based in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Founded in 1955, the organization is known for holding an annual press photography contest. Since 2011, World Press Photo has organized a ...
competition, Second place in the Contemporary Issues category for "The Julie Project".
* 2012: World Press Photo competition, Honorable mention in the Daily Life category for Jason & Elyssa.
* 2015: World Press Photo competition, First place in the Long Term Projects category for "The Julie Project".