Nathalie Bertrams is a documentary photographer and investigative journalist. She reports on global supply chains driving biodiversity loss, on resource extraction and the communities that bear its costs, and on migration and displacement. A National Geographic Explorer, she works across text, photography and film. Her work has appeared in Süddeutsche Zeitung, The Guardian, El País and Al Jazeera, and has won the EU Lorenzo Natali Media Prize. She studied at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf and exhibits her photographs internationally.
Selected Media & Commissions
Süddeutsche Zeitung, The Guardian, El País, Al Jazeera, De Groene Amsterdammer, New Lines Magazine,
BBC News, NRC, OCCRP, Mongabay, Christian Science Monitor, Reportagen, Daily Maverick, Washington
Post Magazine, Financial Times, Die Zeit, Nature, Granta
Documentary work for Arte/ZDF; radio documentaries for Cultural Survival Indigenous Rights Radio.
Selected Awards & Recognitions
2025 UNICEF Photo of the Year – Nominee
Deutscher Preis für Klimajournalismus – Finalist
Earth Photo, Royal Geographical Society – Shortlisted
Gomma Grant – Finalist
2024 Marilyn Stafford FotoReportage Award – Shortlisted
True Story Awards – Finalist & Honourable Mention
2023 Dejan Anastasijević Award for Investigative Journalism, Serbia – Winner
2022 Superscrieri Award, Romania – Winner (Local News) & Jury Prize
2021 Fetisov Journalism Awards – Shortlisted (Outstanding Investigative Reporting)
2018 Hostwriter Story Prize – Winner
2016 Kuala Lumpur International Photoawards – Finalist
2015 Lorenzo Natali Media Prize, European Commission – Winner
Felix Schoeller Photo Awards – Finalist
Grants + Fellowships
Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, Journalismfund Europe, NR/Olin Umweltstipendium, Stiftung Kulturwerk der VG Bildkunst, Fonds Bijzondere Journalistieke Projecten, IWMF (Howard G. Buffett Fund for Women Journalists),
Free Press Unlimited, National Geographic Society, IJ4EU, Robert Bosch Foundation (Reporters in the Field fellowship), Earth Journalism Network, Stiftung Kunstfonds
Selected Investigations & Projects
2026 Investigation into Mauritius’s trade in long-tailed macaques for biomedical research – Süddeutsche
Zeitung, Daily Maverick, Vreme, Apache
Reporting on South Africa’s deindustrialisation crisis in the Vaal Triangle – Daily Maverick, D+C,
New Lines Magazine
Photo project on Nagorno-Karabakh refugees in Armenia – VG Bildkunst grant
2025 Investigation into mining expansion on Sámi reindeer herding lands in northern Sweden –
Süddeutsche Zeitung, Tages-Anzeiger, Vreme, De Groene Amsterdammer, Indigenous Rights Radio
Investigation into Antarctic krill fishing and geopolitics – Süddeutsche Zeitung, De Groene
Amsterdammer, Daily Maverick, Newstapa, Tages-Anzeiger
Reporting on Belgium’s prison crisis – New Lines Magazine, Vreme
Reporting on pangolin trafficking and law enforcement in Nigeria – OCCRP
2024 Investigation into the illegal trade of big cats linked to organised crime in the Balkans – New Lines
Magazine, NRC, Amfora
Investigation into octopus overfishing and the global seafood trade – Süddeutsche Zeitung, El País,
Christian Science Monitor, De Groene Amsterdammer, Tages-Anzeiger, Daily Maverick
Reporting on peat extraction and Europe’s horticultural industry – Süddeutsche Zeitung, Eesti
Päevaleht
2023 Investigation into rubber production, deforestation and Indigenous communities in Cameroon –
Süddeutsche Zeitung, De Groene Amsterdammer, Daily Maverick, Africa Eco News
Investigation into the illegal trade in wild birds from Guinea to Europe – Süddeutsche Zeitung,
Trouw, Daily Maverick, MO*, Vreme, Reportagen
Documentary on bird trafficking from Suriname to the Netherlands – Arte/ZDF, De Groene
Amsterdammer
Photo essay on South Africa’s gold mining legacy – Al Jazeera
2022 Investigation into the environmental impacts of large-scale seaweed farming in Europe –
Süddeutsche Zeitung, NRC, BBC News, Mongabay
Reporting on lithium mining and local resistance in Serbia – De Groene Amsterdammer,
Deutsche Welle, Vreme
Investigation into the international trade in wild-harvested snowdrops from Georgia – Süddeutsche
Zeitung, De Groene Amsterdammer, Arte/ZDF
2021 Investigation into EU funding and environmental governance in Romania’s Danube Delta –
Süddeutsche Zeitung, NRC
Long-term National Geographic project on the cultures of the Danube Delta in Ukraine and
Romania – Photo essay, Indigenous Rights Radio
2020 Investigation into the global trade in marine ornamental fish from Indonesia and Kenya to Europe –
Süddeutsche Zeitung, De Groene Amsterdammer, BBC News
Wildlife reporting on pangolins in Gabon – The Guardian, Süddeutsche Zeitung
Coal Town, long-term National Geographic project on South Africa’s first post-apartheid city and its
dependence on coal – Mail & Guardian
2019 Reporting on the Ebola epidemic in DR Congo – De Groene Amsterdammer, Tages-Anzeiger,
Süddeutsche Zeitung
Photo essay on rap in Goma, DR Congo – Al Jazeera
2018 Investigation into Madagascar’s vanilla trade – The Guardian, De Groene Amsterdammer, Courrier
International, Internazionale, Mail & Guardian
Photo essay on youth with disabilities in Ethiopia – Al Jazeera
2017 Investigation into deforestation, household air pollution and health in Malawi – The Guardian,
Süddeutsche Zeitung, New Internationalist, MO*
Outcast: Photo book on African refugees in an Israeli detention camp
Education
1994 – 2002 Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, Germany – MFA
2001 Nagoya Zokei University of Art & Design, Japan – Artist residency
1998 Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris, France – Artist residency
1997 – 1998 San Francisco Art Institute, USA – Postgraduate Studies
1988 – 1993 Akademie Beeldende Kunsten Maastricht, Netherlands – BA
Hefat training
2022 Cosain Consultancy & Acos Alliance, Birmingham, UK
Affiliations
Red Line collective, Reporters Without Borders, International Press Institute, Frontline Freelance Register, Women Photograph