Don Bartletti is Southern California based photojournalist. His 32-year career at the Los Angeles Times and 10 years prior with other San Diego County newspapers took him throughout the United States and around the world for news, feature and investigative photo essays.
Work History
LOS ANGELES TIMES
Photojournalist, Los Angeles, CA. October 1984 – November 2015
Proposed, photographed and published photo essays and videos related to border enforcement, migratory routes, immigrant squatter camps, Mexico's internal migration, U.S. deportations, Mexico's drug war, Central American migrant children, exploited workers on Mexican farms who pick produce for U.S. markets, assimilation, bilingual education, cross-border commerce and culture, immigrant workers in U.S. service industry, agriculture, and manufacturing. Documentation of 4 immigrants over a 27-year period of time.
SAN DIEGO UNION/TRIBUNE
Photojournalist, San Diego, CA. February 1977 – October 1984
1980 civil wars in Nicaragua, El Salvador and Guatemala. 1980, traversed the Darian Gap by canoe and on foot from Panama to Columbia to document indigenous Cuna and Choco tribes.
1981-1984, San Diego's border with Mexico as the most heavily crossed political boundary in the world.
OCEANSIDE BLADE/TRIBUNE
Photojournalist, Oceanside, CA. February 1976 - February 1977
Local news and features in northern San Diego County. Photographed, wrote and produced weekly photo essay titled Point of View.
THE VISTA PRESS
Photojournalist, Vista, CA. November 1972 – February 1976
Local news and features. Photographed, wrote and produced a weekly photo essay titled Viewpoint.
Education
COMMISSIONED OFFICER
1970 - United States Army Infantry Officer Candidate School, Ft. Benning, GA.
1970–1971 - Vietnam War. 1st Lieutenant. Commanded ammunition convoys to the DMZ and Khe Sanh.
ASSOCIATE OF ARTS
1968 - Photojournalism Palomar College, San Marcos, CA
Lectures
Over 120 presentations at Universities, Colleges, High Schools, Civic Organizations. Venues include: Annenberg Space for Photography, Los Angeles; Distinguished Lecturer Kent State University; Keynote Speaker, Migration & Theology, Notre Dame University; Ecumenical Conference on Migration, Tegucigalpa, Honduras; Public Lecture, Between Two Worlds, Oakland Museum of California; Public Lecture, Los Vecinos, Museum of Photographic Arts San Diego; Lecturer, National Latino Research Center, Cal State San Marcos; Keynote Speaker, Our Nation of Others, University of Wisconsin; Foreign Study Educators Conference, Denver; Teacher, Los Angeles Center for Photography; Center for U.S./Mexican Studies U.C. San Diego; University of Baja California; University of Arizona; University of La Verne, CA., Cal Poly San Luis Obispo; New Mexico Humanities Council Albuquerque, Las Cruces & Santa Fe, NM; Keynote Speaker, Southwest Festival of the Written Word, Silver City, NM; Valencia Photo 2022 Festival Internacional de Fotografía y Debate, Valencia, Spain.
Exhibits
Solo Exhibits: San Diego Museum of Photographic Arts; Oakland Museum of California; 6 California Regional Museums in immigrant farm communities; University of Arizona Tucson; University of Wisconsin Madison; Idaho State University; Centro Cultural de Tijuana, Mexico; Moving Walls 9 - Open Society Institute, New York and Washington, D.C., New Mexico Humanities Council, Albuquerque; Western New Mexico University, Silver City; Leica Gallery Los Angeles; Oceanside Museum of Art, Oceanside, California.
Group Exhibits: International Center for Photography, New York; Center for Creative Photography, Tucson; Friends of Photography Ansel Adams Center, San Francisco; International Museum of Photography, Rochester; Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.; Jimmy Carter Presidential Library-Museum, Atlanta; Center For The Fine Arts, Miami; Museum of Tolerance, Los Angeles; Ellis Island Immigration Museum, New York; Museo de Arte e Historia del INBA, Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico; El Templo de San Augustin, Zacatecas, Mexico; Instituto Cultural Cabanas, Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico; Museo Regional de Antropologia Carlos Pellicer, Tabasco, Mexico; Instituto de Cultura de Yucatan, Merida, Mexico; Museo de Arte Carrillo Gil, INBA, Mexico City, Mexico. Centennial of The Pulitzer, Los Angeles; Valencia Photo 2022 Festival Internacional de Fotografía y Debate, Valencia, Spain.
Accomplishments
2003 Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography
2015 Pulitzer Prize finalist for International Reporting
2002 Robert F. Kennedy Grand Prize for International Photojournalism
2015 Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Prize for International Print Reporting
2015 Overseas Press Club Award for Reporting on Latin America
2002 George Polk Award for International Reporting
2003 United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Photo Essay of the Year
2003 Scripps-Howard Foundation Award for Photojournalism
2003 Moving Walls 9 - Open Society Institute
Additional career-spanning recognition from Pictures of the Year International, National Press Photographer’s Association, World Press Photo, Inter American Press Club, Sidney Hillman Foundation, San Diego Press Club, Los Angeles Press Club, National Association of Hispanic Journalists, California Chicano News Media Organization and the Los Angeles Times Editorial Awards.