ProPublica announced on Friday that Roberto “Bear” Guerra and Jovelle Tamayo will join its staff as visual editors.
For the last several years, Guerra was the visuals editor at High Country News, where he led efforts to elevate the magazine’s approach to visual storytelling, prioritized collaboration with artists from diverse backgrounds and experiences, mentored emerging talent and established relationships with industry-leading organizations like CatchLight and the Magnum Foundation. During his time, the magazine earned recognitions and awards from the American Society of Magazine Editors, American Illustration-American Photography, Indigenous Journalists Association and others.
Guerra is a photographer whose documentary and editorial work has focused on a wide range of topics, including social and environmental issues and the impacts of climate change on communities in the U.S. and abroad. His work has been published and exhibited widely, with support from the Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting, the Society of Environmental Journalists’ Fund for Environmental Journalism and others. Guerra has been a finalist for a National Magazine Award, a Ted Scripps Fellow in Environmental Journalism at the University of Colorado, Boulder, and the recipient of a distinguished alumni award from the international peace studies department at Notre Dame. He is part of the Diversify Photo community and a member of the Society of Environmental Journalists.
Tamayo will be joining ProPublica from The Marshall Project, where they were a multimedia editor, working with photojournalists, illustrators and other visual storytellers to report on the criminal justice system. Tamayo is a documentary photographer and has contributed coverage of the Pacific Northwest to publications including The New York Times, Time, The Washington Post, The Guardian and NPR.
They are a founding member of the Authority Collective, a group of women and nonbinary imagemakers of color, and a co-author of the Photo Bill of Rights, a document advocating for equitable conditions for professionals in the visual media industry. Tamayo is also part of the inaugural cohort of the International Women’s Media Foundation Safety Ambassador Fellowship.
Tamayo has also covered daily local news and sports at the Yakima Herald-Republic in central Washington, the Valley News in Vermont and New Hampshire, and the Times Herald-Record in New York’s Hudson Valley.
“I’m thrilled about adding Jovelle and Bear to our visual storytelling team,” said Lisa Larson-Walker, ProPublica’s art director. “They are both remarkably versatile visual editors who have pushed the boundaries of what multidisciplinary journalism can look like. They bring a unique balance and are outstanding journalists who bring years of experience doing investigative work and approach projects and collaboration with humility and warmth.”
