Jason Florio, originally from London, based from NYC for 18 years before relocating to The Gambia, West Africa, in 2013. He has produced images and documentaries for clients including The New York Times, Smithsonian, The New Yorker, Men’s, Journal, Outside, Bloomberg, Geographical, MIT Technology Review, PepsiCo, Amnesty International and the World Bank. He is a contributing editor for the Virginia Quarterly Review.

His focus has been towards under-reported stories about people living on the margins of society and human rights. His work has been recognised with a number of awards, including The Magnum Photography Award 2017 for his work on migration. He was the first recipient of the Aperture Foundation grant to produce Aperture’s first ever assigned story, ‘This is Libya’. His work is held in a number of public and private collections and has been presented in solo and joint exhibitions in USA, Europe, Asia and Africa.

Florio completed the first recorded circumnavigation of The Gambia by foot, co-leading with his wife Helen Jones-Florio - a 930km expedition, producing an award-winning series of portraits titled ‘Silafando’.
Three years later he co-led, with Helen, the first recorded expedition of River Gambia from its source in Guinea-Conakry to the Atlantic Ocean, in The Gambia - creating a document of the communities that live along its 1130km course before a planned dam is constructed.

For his photography based expedition projects, he was made a Fellow of The Royal Geographical Society.

He currently bases between the UK and West Africa.

CV
Awards
2019 LensCulture Finalist Portrait Awards
2018 Contemporary African Photography Prize - short listed
2018 American Photography 34 (AI-AP)
2018 LensCulture Exposure Awards - Jurors' Pick
2017 Magnum Photography Awards - Winner -Photojournalism
2016 Virginia Quarterly Review - Prize for Photography
2014 ASME nomination - Feature Photography/VQR 'River Gambia'
2014 Society of News Design - Award of Excellence /'Mogadishu Portraits'
2013 SPD Awards - Silver Medal - Trunk Magazine
2013 Virginia Quarterly Review - Prize for Photography
2012 International Photography Award - Honourable Mention 'Professional'
2012 Portrait Salon - 2012 Selections
2012 Px3 Silver Medal - Portraiture/Culture category
2012 Black & White Spider Awards - Winner 'Portrait' category
2011 PX3 Prix de la Photographie – War – Gold Medal
2011 One Life International Photography Awards - Winner 'People'
2010 International Photography Awards - over all winner 'People' category
2010 International Photography Awards - 1st place 'People : Culture' category
2010 Forward Thinking Museum - winner of the 2nd Quarter Photo Contest
2010 NY Photo Festival, Honorary Mention - fine art/personal series
2010 PDN Faces - Finalist
2010 CDS/Daylight Awards, Honorary Mention - Project Prize
2009 Centre, Review Santa Fe - Nominee
2009 Black and White magazine - Spot Light Awards

Grants
2018 Fondation pour l'Egalité des Chances en Afrique
2017 EU Migration Media Award - reporting grant
2013 Arts and Cultural Grant - US Embassy
2004 Joy of Giving Something - Aperture GraMuseum collections
Permanent collection of the National Centre for Arts and Culture, The Gambia
Permanent collection of the International Photography Museum, Huai’an, China
Permanent collection of the Brooklyn Museum of Art, NY
Permanent collection of Forward Thinking Museum, NYC
Permanent collection of The Haggerty Museum, Milwaukee, USA

Solo exhibitions
2016 MOAS Xchange - Maritime Museum - Malta
2013 Silafando - Athens Photography Festival, Athens, Greece
2013 River Gambia - source to sea - Photoville, NYC
2012 Long Fight Burma - Messineo Art and Wyman Contemporary Gallery NYC
2011 Afghanistan - International Photography Museum - Huai’an, China
2011 Silafando - International Photography Museum - Huai’an, China
2011 Makasutu/ Silafando – The Hagedorn Gallery - Atlanta
2010 Forward Operating Base Afghanistan - Forward Thinking Museum NYC
2009 Makasutu - Messineo Art and Wyman Contemporary Gallery NYC
2005 This is Libya - The Forward Thinking Museum NYC
2005 Makasutu – Mecca in the Forest - Half King Gallery NYC
2002 Afghanistan - 39th Exposure Gallery - San Francisco
2001 Afghanistan The Silent Majority - The Talk Gallery, NYC

Group exhibitions (partial)
2017 Magnum Photo - Destination Europe - Photographers’ Gallery - London
2016 Lampedusa - St James Cavalieri, Valletta - Malta
2013 Silafando - Athens Photo Festival
2011 The Truth Is Not In The Mirror -Haggerty Museum of Art, Milwaukee
2011 Upstate Memory - Spacer, NYC
2007 Momento Mori - The Artist Network, NYC
2004 Residents Show - The Artist Network, NYC
2003 Chiapas - Mckool Studios, Dallas TX
2003 New acquisitions - Brooklyn Museum of Art, NYC
2002 Afghanistan - Messineo Wyman Projects, NYC
2001 The Sept 11th Project - NYC

Affiliations
Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society