Michael Kirby Smith is a filmmaker and photographer based in Brooklyn, NY. He recently held a full-time, contract position as a senior visual journalist for The New York Times, where he contributed as a photographer, filmmaker, and producer on special projects. He works for a variety of commercial, editorial, and non-profit publications. He is a 2014 Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting grantee, for which he covered ongoing social unrest in Yemen. In 2012 he was nominated for the World Press Joop Swart Masterclass. He graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a degree in studio art.