An Award-winning Photojournalist, in Focus

David Ryder is a chronicler of our world. As a photojournalist, Ryder (BA, Comparative History of Ideas, 2006; MA, Cultural Studies, 2011) captures images of newsworthy and often emotionally charged moments, from political protests to raging forest fires to the heartbreak of Covid. It’s a challenging career, full of memorable moments.

“Photojournalism has given me a front row seat to history, witnessing things that most people just read about later,” he says.

Ryder’s photography has been published in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Bloomberg, TIME magazine, and other publications. His work also has been shared widely through Reuters and Getty Images. And it all started with a job at The Daily, the UW student newspaper.

Born and raised in Kirkland, Washington, Ryder arrived at the UW with almost no photography experience. He took one photography course in high school and enjoyed it, but it was hardly a passion. Then he learned that The Daily needed photographers. He worked there all four years at the UW.

As a Daily photographer, Ryder jumped on any assignment that came up. “The editors would say, ‘Alright, we’ve got a bunch of assignments’ and I’d say, ‘I’ll do all of them. Just let me know what you want covered and I’ll do it,’” he recalls. “That was really my education in photojournalism — The Daily and just exploring the UW with my camera.”

At the same time, Ryder was exploring academically. He came to the UW envisioning an engineering major, having enjoyed mathematics in high school. But a study abroad program in New Zealand, offered by the Department of the Comparative History of Ideas (CHID), opened his eyes to other possibilities.

“That CHID study abroad was a huge moment for me,” he says. “I was thrown right into the deep end with a lot of theory. Before that, I didn’t really know what it meant to look at a problem from different perspectives and different disciplines.” The experience had such an impact that Ryder participated in three more study abroad programs as an undergraduate, in Mexico, Cuba, and South Africa.

After earning a BA in CHID, Ryder took a job as a photographer at a small newspaper in Park City, Utah. Though he enjoyed the work, he missed the intellectual discourse he’d found in CHID. After a year at the paper, he left to pursue a master’s in cultural studies at UW Bothell, where he was able to explore photography’s intersections with race, class, gender, and power.

Ryder credits both CHID and Cultural Studies with shaping his approach to photojournalism. CHID’s interdisciplinary focus helped him become a nimble problem solver and storyteller, connecting with a wide range of people. Through Cultural Studies, he developed a nuanced sensitivity to the ethical considerations in photojournalism. 

Those ethical considerations come up often, since many of Ryder’s photos capture people in moments of high emotion. When possible, Ryder confirms his subjects’ willingness to be photographed before he snaps photos. It’s an issue of respect, he says. It also leads to more powerful images.

“I just try to be a human first and connect with people,” he says. “Some people don’t want to be photographed. You have to respect that. I think people can read your intention. If you’re there to just snap a couple of photos and leave, why would somebody want that? So maybe it means showing up early or not taking pictures for the first few minutes or even the first hour. After a while you become an accepted presence, and people stop worrying about you being there. That’s when the photos are going to be more honest.”

Ryder has had many challenging assignments, from visiting the US-Mexico border to documenting wildfires and their aftermath in the Pacific Northwest. In 2022, he traveled to Ukraine to photograph the impact of war.

“Conflict was something I’d thought about covering before, and I wanted to see if it was a good fit for me and my skills since I’ve covered a lot of conflict-adjacent things in the US, like political violence and protests,” he says. “I went to Ukraine for two weeks and, with the help of people I knew there, picked up a few assignments. I might do more things like that in the future. It ties into the front-row-seat-to-history part of being a photojournalist, covering something that feels important.”

Not all Ryder’s projects are so heavy. He’s photographed bull riders and ski racers and the jubilation of Husky fans after a big win. He recently added drone photography and portrait photography to his portfolio, including portraits of ministers and fishmongers and industry titans, including Bill Gates.

Ryder’s most famous photo — a cover photo for TIME magazine — is also a portrait. Taken at the start of Covid, when family members were barred from visiting loved ones in nursing homes, it captures a woman outside a nursing home at the window of her mother’s room. The mother is visible on the other side of the glass in her bed. Shooting the photo was challenging on many levels, starting with the fact that Ryder, not being a family member, was not even allowed on the property.

“That was a crazy shoot,” Ryder says. “I had to shoot from a sidewalk about 100 feet away, but the family could be on the property, so the subject’s husband held a light for me. I was on the phone with him, telling him to turn the light to the left or angle it a different way, or asking him to tell his wife to move her face this way or that. On top of that, her mother inside the nursing home was recovering from Covid and tired easily, so it had to be a quick photo shoot.”

The resulting photos powerfully capture the isolation of Covid. A photo from that shoot, and another taken during the Capitol Hill Occupied Protest (CHOP) in Seattle, were selected for TIME’s Top 100 Photos of 2020, providing a huge boost to Ryder’s career. The next year he was included in TIME’s Top Photos of 2021, and last year he had a photo in CNN’s 2023: The Year in Pictures.

But ask Ryder whether he feels like he’s made it, and he just shakes his head.

“As a freelancer, you never feel really secure,” he says. “Fair warning to anybody who wants to be an independent photographer — it’s not easy. But I love being creative and I love the variety of experiences in my work, meeting people from all different walks of life and witnessing historic events. It is a huge privilege to do this work. I feel very lucky.”