ABOUT
Erin Grace Trieb is an award-winning photojournalist focusing on geopolitical conflict and humanitarian issues.
Trieb has spent over a decade as a photojournalist and documentary photographer covering conflicts and world events in Israel, Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria and Ukraine. She has also covered major domestic events such as the Black Lives Matter protests following the death of George Floyd, Covid-19 hotspots and devastating hurricanes in Texas and Louisiana. Her photography spans a diversity of subject matter from international news to social issue-driven topics like trauma and women’s rights. She photographs regularly for National Geographic, The New York Times, TIME Magazine, Rolling Stone, ESPN Magazine, Smithsonian Magazine and many others.
Trieb’s work has received international recognition and awards from World Press Photo, Pictures of The Year International, The Art Director’s Club, the Magenta Foundation, and American Photography. In 2007 she was the youngest photographer to receive a World Press Photo award for her coverage of Kinky Friedman’s gubernatorial race in Texas. In 2010 her documentary work of U.S. military Forward Surgical Team medics in Afghanistan won her an award from Pictures of the Year International. In 2014 Trieb was the youngest recipient to receive the distinguished Alumni Award from her Alma Mater, Texas A&M University-Commerce. In 2017 she was named a Female Icon of adventure by Outside Magazine. In 2020 the Briscoe Center for American History at the University of Texas invited Trieb as the youngest photographer to contribute her archive to the Briscoe’s permanent photography collection.
Her photography has exhibited at The Annenberg Space for Photography in Los Angeles, The United Nations headquarters in New York, the Visa pour l’lmage festival in Perpignan, France, The Houston Center of Photography in Texas, and the Bronx Documentary Center in New York. Her work from the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan was part of “War/Photography: Images of Armed Conflict and Its Aftermath” at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, which toured nationally throughout 2012, and is now included in the museum’s permanent collection.
Trieb is a frequent keynote event speaker and panelist. She has presented her work as a keynote speaker at the Fearless Masters photography conference in the Netherlands (2023), the Lumix Festival For Young Visual Journalism in Germany (2016), the Association of Texas Photography Instructors annual conference (2017), and has toured with Pop Up Magazine’s multi-city speaking tour (2017). She has also participated as a panelist at the Aspen Ideas Festival in Colorado (2022), The Gotham Film and Media Institute with TIME Studios in New York (2019), the Photoville Festival in Brooklyn, New York (2014), among many others. Trieb also guest lectures at universities and educational institutions around the world.
While passionate about photography, Trieb is also an avid humanitarian and is involved with non-profit work in her spare time. In 2010 she founded The Homecoming Project, a non-profit and educational campaign highlighting the effects of trauma from war on the U.S. military and veterans. The Homecoming Project has exhibited in over 50 platforms worldwide and has been published by dozens of major media outlets including The New York Times, TIME Magazine and Newsweek. Trieb also currently serves as the Creative Director for The Ben Meyer Recovery Foundation, a non-profit aiming to prevent high-risk substance use, provide support for addiction recovery, and reduce the social stigma of addiction in honor of her step-brother, Ben Meyer.
Trieb’s most recent project includes filming, directing and producing AN UPHILL BATTLE, a feature-length documentary film that chronicles the lives of the first female Afghan mountain climbers to summit Mount Noshaq, Afghanistan’s highest peak (24,500 feet). In 2018 An Uphill Battle was chosen by the Independent Filmmaker Project to present at their international co-production market in New York. The film is partnered with TIME Studios and is currently in post-production with an expected release in 2024.
Trieb currently resides in Bozeman, Montana.
