Jim Hubbard  
Founder, Shooting Back

Jim Hubbard is an acclaimed social documentary photographer, nominated three times for the Pulitzer Prize and recipient of over 100 photography awards. The National Child Labor Committee (NCLC) named him one of ten honorees awarded the prestigious 2007 Lewis Hine Award, and he is just one of two recipients of the Distinguished Service Award, given to business leaders and individuals in the public eye who have made a positive impact on the welfare of the nation's children and youth. Hubbard was named a fellow in 2007 at the University of Southern California's (USC) Institute for Photographic Empowerment, a joint project of the Annenberg School for Communication's Center for Public Diplomacy, its Center on Communication Leadership, and Venice Arts.

Jim is from the city of Detroit, MI. His work is collected in his book American Refugees. Jim began his career in Detroit during the tumultuous 1960’s with the 1967 Detroit riots being one of the first major international stories he photographed. Jim has covered many of the world’s major stories including the 1972 Munich Olympics and massacre, the 1979 Cambodian genocide by the Pol Pot regime, the death of 10,000 people during a cyclone near Calcutta, India and the Wounded Knee siege in 1973. His photographs have been published in most of the world’s major publications and he served with the White House Press Corps traveling with the president during his sixteen year staff position with United Press International (UPI). He has photographed five U.S. presidents and numerous presidential campaigns including travel with Bobby Kennedy shortly before Kennedy’s death in 1968. His work has also been featured on several television shows including Oprah and A&E’s biography series Uncommon Americans, as well as in feature films including Lars Von Trier’s Dogville and Manderlay. Jim and his photographs were also featured in the unique documentary film To Render a Life.

After 25 years as a professional photographer, Hubbard founded Shooting Back in Washington, D.C. to empower disenfranchised youth with the ability to describe their world: with the camera they “shot back,” as the experts of their lives rather than the subjects of a professional’s work. The fundamental vision of Jim and Shooting Back was to publicize global poverty and despair through the medium of photography in the media and in public exhibitions. The work is borne out of the enormous human suffering Hubbard witnessed as a news photographer domestically and internationally. The pioneering nature of Jim’s work has been cited in a wide range of literature and academic journals on photography, visual sociology and contemporary art including, most recently, in the Oxford History of Art: American Photography (2004). Hubbard also authored three books from his work with Shooting Back including Shooting Back by Homeless Youth and Shooting Back from the Reservation.

Since 1988 Shooting Back and Jim Hubbard continue to conduct workshops and exhibit the images of disenfranchised people around the world highlighting health issues and economic inequality. Jim is the creative director at Venice Arts in Los Angeles and their widely respected photography programs for low income youth utilize the Shooting Back model. Shooting Back’s photographs have been among the most widely viewed and publicized images in modern photographic history. Countless numbers of individuals and organizations have been inspired by and have replicated similar Shooting Back programs nationally and internationally.

Jim holds both Master of Arts and Master of Divinity degrees. He is the father of four daughters.

Articles by Jim Hubbard: (5)