Photojournalist Sam Tyler was born in Rochester, New York – the Imaging Capital of the World. 

Mr. Tyler began his photojournalism career as a wedding photographer’s assistant at Alwyn Studios while a student at the University of Rochester. After University, Mr. Tyler worked as Unit-Photographer on several films, including Wings of Hope with Roshan Seth. The following year Mr. Tyler traveled to Morocco to produce a photographic narrative on Arab and Berber culture in the Maghrib.  Following North Africa, he photographed the Temples de Minerva in Guatemala for Americas Magazine, and produced a photographic narrative documenting life on the Zocolo in Oaxaca, Mexico under the direction of award-winning documentary photographer Mary Ellen Mark.

Mr. Tyler produces compelling photographs and text, a sought after combination of talent in journalists. Since 2002, Mr. Tyler has focused on producing narratives for exhibition and publication that provide Americans passage inside the lives and society of their neighbors in Cuba.  As a grant awardee from the National Endowment for the Arts, he taught photography to Cuban youth while exhibiting in the Ritmos de Luz Exhibicion at the Teatro Nacional in Cuba.  Mr. Tyler photographed the Cuban Jazz Festival for the Latin American Folk Institute, and worked with the Cuba Aids Project to procure and manage delivery of humanitarian relief from private and government donors in the United States to churches and hospitals in Havana, Pinar del Rio, and Camaguey provinces.  In 2006, Mr. Tyler returned to Cuba and produced a photographic narrative on World Heritage Sites in Old Havana for the Washington Spark Newspaper. During that visit, he and his wife were hosted as guests at the US Interest Section private residence of Mission Chief, Michael E. Parmly.  In 2008, he continued documenting Cuba during Hurricane Ike by completing pre-production of a narrative to explore the intersection of state-organized medicine and education, and how this comprehensive mix is exported to improve the health of poor communities in both industrialized and developing countries. Upon returning to the United States, he organized Cuba/Lluvia/Ayuda, a benefit exhibition held at the Academy for Educational Development to support Pastors for Peace post-hurricane efforts in Cuba. Mr. Tyler is one of only a few working American journalists with extensive in-country experience in Cuba.

With his work as a photojournalist, he has written articles for numerous publications, including a profile of choreographer, Garth Fagan for Essence Magazine. As a former Youth Worker for the Academy for Educational Development, Mr. Tyler led a youth mentoring initiative in South Florida. As a former Program Officer with the Spanish Education Development Center, Mr. Tyler taught ESOL, and managed an institutional advancement initiative.  He lives in the Adams Morgan neighborhood of Washington, DC.