James Wellford is a Senior Visuals Editor and Producer for Global Issues at National Geographic. Prior to his time at National Geographic, he was the International Photography Editor at Newsweek Magazine for 12 years. Additionally, he has worked as a visual editor for Foreign Policy, CNN, and the Smithsonian.

Wellford is a graduate of Brown University and a Knight Wallace Fellow from the University of Michigan. His career spans decades during which time he has served at an editorial director at Visura, founded ScreenProjects.org, edited the New York Daily News archival collection, curated numerous photography exhibitions , and served on a number of photography juries around the world including the Leica Oskar Barnack award, the Tim Hetherington Trust, the Overseas Press Club, PX3 in Paris, the Cortona Photo Festival, and POYi (Pictures of the Year International).

Dedicated to visual education, James has taught at the International Center of Photography and the New School in NYC.

Mentorship Expertise:
For more than 2 decades, James Wellford has been mentoring a wide range of photographers through teaching, assigning and developing visual stories, and maintaining a regular engagement at portfolio reviews throughout the world. He welcomes any themes and ideas worth developing or and compelling approaches to building a visual project. He believes in a symbiotic relationship devoted to building meaningful visual stories that fulfill(s) the intention(s) of the creator. As a mentor, he aims to help image makers define and reflect their process and intent in their work, the key to developing robust projects through visual storytelling.

Schedule considerations:
James Wellford prefers to meet toward the end of the week.