His personal documentary projects dealing with underreported social issues have been recognized with numerous awards and honors such as the UK National Portrait Gallery Photographic Portrait Prize, prix découverte d’Arles at the Rencontres d’Arles, Open Society Foundations Documentary photography Project Fellowship Grant, and the Getty Grant for Editorial Photography (twice). Torgovnik has also received awards from World Press Photo Foundation, Picture Of The Year International, American Photography Awards, Communication Arts, and Photo District News.
Torgovnik’s short documentary film Intended Consequences won the duPont Columbia University Journalism Award, a Webby Award, an Emmy nomination, and was named as one of the best works of journalism of the decade in the United States, by New York University's Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute.
Torgovnik is the author of two books: Bollywood Dreams; An Exploration of the Motion Picture Industry, and its Culture in India (Phaidon, 2003), and Intended Consequences: Rwandan Children Born of Rape (Aperture, 2009). His work has been featured in numerous solo and group exhibitions in museums, galleries and institutions around the world and are in the permanent collections of The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the Bibliotheque National De France in Paris, and the Library of congress, Washington, DC, among others.
Torgovnik’s photographs from various projects and assignments have also been published by The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, Time, MSNBC.com, Newsweek, GEO, The London Sunday Times Magazine, Stern, Paris Match, Mother Jones, and Aperture among many others. Aside from his editorial work, Torgovnik has also worked on commissions for The Hewlett Foundation, ICRC, Unicef, Adidas, Glaxo Smith Klein, Discovery Channel, CNN, UNESCO, and AJWS.
Torgovnik regularly lectures, teaches and leads workshops in universities and institutions around the world. He is a regular contributor to the education department of World Press Photo Foundation and is on the faculty of the International Center of Photography School in New York.
Following Torgovnik’s deep involvement in his long-term project Intended Consequences in Rwanda, Torgovnik co-founded the non-governmental organization Foundation Rwanda, that supports secondary school education for children born of rape during the Rwandan genocide.
Jonathan is a firm believer in the power of photography as a catalyst to help create social change and is committed to documenting issues relating to social injustice, human rights, trauma, and global health.
Torgovnik is represented by Verbatim Photo Agency worldwide. He is currently based in Johannesburg, South Africa.
