Amanda Koster is an internationally acclaimed photographer who has made it her mission to document some
of the world’s most compelling issues. Koster has successfully combined her anthropology background and photographic and videography skills to create media content as a means for effective communication and learning.

Amanda holds a bachelor’s degree from Southern Connecticut State University in Anthropology with a concentration in religious studies, art history and women’s studies. Koster also studied at the International Center of Photography in New York City, concentrating on portrait, photojournalism and documentary photography.

She worked as a staff photographer for Yale University Biomedical Communications before launching her own freelance career. She was a stringer for The New Raven Register Newspaper (circulation 500,000) for 2 years. Now she regularly photographs for major international magazines such as Newsweek, Fortune, Fast Company and Metropolis.

Amanda has worked as a photojournalist documenting the work of several non-profit organizations including Doctors Without Borders, Action Against Hunger, United Way, and Rabuor Village Project. Koster has since expended her skills with filmmaking and writing and has produced still and motion photography content for an NGO Rabuor Village Project.

Her longer-term still and motion projects include AIDS orphans and widows of the Luo tribe in Kenya, "AIDS Is Knocking." (aidsisknocking.org) The project was recently awarded honorable mention in the Santa Fe Center for Photography int’l competition and 2nd place in the international 2004 LUCIE Awards, and most recently,
1st place: photo essay in the 2005 Society of Professional Journalists competition. Aids is Knocking is a sponsored project of SEDRAT Arts and will be featured on the cover of their 2006 Calendar.

Other projects include“This Is Beautiful," (thisisbeautiful.org) an ongoing multiple award-winning project that redefines the innate beauty of women and a very personal project about her grandfather“"Andrew’s Roots," an immigrant from Romania. STAY TUNED: for her project in Morocco. Grants from Kodak Professional support all of these projects.

Amanda has worked extensively with youth media projects in The United Sates and Kenya. She has worked with youth-at-risk adolescents in New Haven CT, New York City and Seattle WA teaching photography as a tool for documentary storytelling creating a voice and outlet for underrepresented youth.

Amanda spearheaded the first African site in Kenya for Bridges To Understanding, an international youth media project connecting children worldwide via the Internet with digital storytelling using still photography, video and journalism. She chose the coast of Kenya because of its predominantly Muslim population and believes that now if ever, is the right time for Americans to open our minds to Islam. Her work has taken her to several countries in Africa including Ethiopia, Eritrea, Kenya, and Tanzania and in addition, United Arab Emirates, Turkey, India, Brazil and Romania. She is on the faculty of the Photographic Center Northwest.