Zach Brien is a photojournalist from New Orleans, Louisiana. He received his masters in new media photojournalism from George Washington University in 2021 and a bachelor in mass communications from Loyola University New Orleans in 2016.

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He has worked professionally since 2013 as a photographer and reporter for publications in New Orleans. While at George Washington University, he was an intern for the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, working under their staff photographer Britt Leckman.

 

In 2021, he won the Mark of Excellence award for best breaking news photography in Region 2 by the Society of Professional Journalists for coverage of protests in Washington, D.C. after the death of George Floyd. These photos were made on assignment for The Hatchet and some of these images are in this story.

 

His work is inspired by photographers like Harold Baquet, Eugene Richards, Howard L. Bingham, Phillip Jones Griffiths, Gordon Parks, Michael P. Smith, Dee Dwyer, Alex Kent, Drew Arrieta, Ryan Hodgson-Rigsbee, John McCusker and more.

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After graduation, he hopes to continue a career in daily news as a photojournalist.