Jean-Marc Bouju (Les Sables d’Olonne, France, 1961) has photographed major news events in Central America, Africa, Europe and Asia since 1993 when he began his career with The Associated Press. He received his master’s degree in photojournalism from the University of Texas in Austin and worked at The Daily Texan from 1991 to 1993.
His first work for AP was in Nicaragua in 1993. In 1994, he moved to Africa where he photographed Rwanda's genocide, civil war and refugee crisis. Coverage of Rwanda earned Bouju and colleagues the 1995 Pulitzer for feature photography. He later photographed conflicts in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Ethiopia and Eritrea, and followed Rwandan-backed rebels on a seven-month trek across then-Zaire as they overthrew Mobutu Sese Seko. Bouju's coverage of the U.S. embassy bombings in East Africa by Osama bin Laden's followers won him a second Pulitzer for news photography in 1999. He won the Associated Press Managing Editors award for spot news photography in 1995, 1996 and 1997. During the U.S. war on Iraq in 2003, Bouju was embedded with the U.S. Army.
A month after returning from Iraq, Bouju was in a car accident which seriously injured his spinal cord and made it difficult for him to return to work in the field. He currently lives in Los Angeles with his wife and daughter.
