About Me
Hannah Gaber is a photographer, video producer, and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist. She is passionate about exploring the world, connecting with people and striving to understand them, their cultures and their history. Her work in photography and journalism are expressions of this curiosity, and her deep desire to share what she learns with those who also wonder constantly about the world.
Raised mostly in Arizona, Hannah split summers between Massachusetts with her father and Cyprus with her archaeologist mother. After graduating high school, she enrolled in the Savannah College of Art and Design. She specialized in fine art, focusing on wet process black and white photography. The darkroom was her sanctuary.
After graduating in 2004, she began an internship with fine art portrait photographer Joyce Tenneson in Manhattan, then returned to Savannah and began working as a portrait photographer in Hilton Head, where she shot digitally for the first time. During that time she shot for publications, weddings and events.
She moved to Tucson in 2011 for grad school at the University of Arizona -- graduating in 2016 with duel Master's in Journalism and Middle Eastern and North African Studies with a Graduate Certificate in Judaic Studies.
While completing her degrees, she spent time in Turkey, Peru, Egypt, Dubai and Oman. She lived in Oman to make a documentary for her thesis project, spent a summer studying Arabic in Morocco after graduating, and then returned to Arizona, where she worked as a video journalist for the Arizona Republic in Phoenix before being awarded a Fulbright scholarship to Cyprus. At the end of her time there, she was hired as a video producer for USA TODAY, where she is now based at their headquarters in the DC area.
Accolades and Awards
* A Young Nation: The Future of Oman Through the Eyes of its Youth, accepted to the GlobalCinema Film Festival of Boston, March 11, 2017.
* Award of Merit, IndieFest Film Awards international film competition, Oct. 2016.
* A Young Nation: The Future of Oman Through the Eyes of its Youth, accepted to theMiddle East Studies Association (MESA) film festival. Nov. 17-20, 2016.
* A Young Nation: The Future of Oman Through the Eyes of its Youth, accepted to the Red Rocks Film Festival, Cedar City, Utah. Nov. 15-16, 2016.
* Eugene S. Pulliam Reporting Fellowship, Gannett/USA Today Network RepublicMedia, Phoenix, Arizona. Sept.-Nov. 2016.
* Critical Language Scholarship, U.S. Department of State. June-Aug. 2016.
* Irving I. Silverman Prize for Excellence, Arizona Center for Judaic Studies. May 2016.
* A Young Nation: The Future of Oman Through the Eyes of its Youth aired in rotating documentary bloc on UNCTV, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NorthCarolina, beginning May, 2016.
* Excellence in International Journalism Award, University of Arizona School ofJournalism. May 2016.
* Outstanding Graduate Student of the Year, University of Arizona School of Journalism.May 2016.
* Photo essay publication and cover illustration photograph, Al-Noor: The Boston CollegeMiddle Eastern and Islamic Studies Journal, Spring 2016.
* Photo essay, Living history and an uncertain future: A portrait of Oman, Lights: TheMESSA Journal, University of Chicago, Spring 2016.
* Arizona Press Club Scholarship. Spring 2015.
* Mark of Excellence, Mixed Video, Broadcast Education Association Festival of Arts. 2015.
* Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowship. Summer 2015 and Academic Year2014-15.
* Category Winner, Cultural Snapshot, University of Arizona Study AbroadPhotography Contest. November 2014.
* Jen Hoffman Student Award, University of Arizona Center for Judaic Studies. Fall2014.
* Society of Professional Journalism Mark of Excellence, Second place, Non-fiction Magazine Article, Region 11, for TransPlans: The Fresh Faces of Transgender Youth, El Independiente magazine, Fall 2012 issue. Awarded April 2013.
* University of Arizona School of Journalism Alex Parker Award for Superior Reporting Skills. May 2013.
* University of Arizona School of Journalism J.Y. Bryan Prize for Interpretive Photography. May 2013.
* University of Arizona School of Journalism Travel Grant. Sept. 2012.