Our team.
Michael Zajakowski | Co-Founder & Community Engagement Director
Prism Photo workshop co-founder and community engagement director Michael Zajakowski has been a photojournalist, photo editor, director of photography and photography educator for over 35 years.
Most recently, Michael served as the Director of Photography at CHICAGO magazine. He has taught visual communication in the graduate journalism program at DePaul University and has been a portfolio reviewer at Filter Photo Festival and dozens of other workshops. He is also on the advisory board of FreshLens Chicago, a photography program for students from under-resourced areas in Chicago.
Having spent his career in mainstream journalism, Michael has observed the inherent biases and prejudices that have created and perpetuated a photojournalism community that has been largely white and male for much of its history, and has been actively engaged in working toward equity in photojournalism for decades, starting with creating a diverse photo staff at The Times of Northwest Indiana in the early 1990s. Since then he has continued to advocate for fairer practices in hiring and a more welcoming culture in newsrooms. Michael has mentored or coached hundreds of young photographers and is committed to continuing this work through the Prism Photo Workshop.