An expert in photojournalism and visual communications, Johnny Bivera has amassed more than 30 years of professional excellence in his profession. Since 2007, he has excelled as the principal of Visual Media One LLC, where he has honed his attention on documenting news and media events for a myriad of clients, as well as facilitating photography workshops for fellow military and civil service photographers. Adjacent to this appointment, he has been the founder and executive director of Shoot Off Visual Media Workshops since 2006. Since the inception of his career, Mr. Bivera has been a freelance photojournalist with a keen emphasis on capturing remarkable images across the world, from everyday life to the tribulations of war.
Notably, Mr. Bivera’s work has appeared in prominent newspapers, magazines and video documentaries, and he was profiled in numerous media productions, such as “NewsHour” with Jim Lehrer on PBS, “American Postcards” by NFL Films and C-SPAN’s “Washington Journal.” Furthermore, his work has been published in several books, and he has lent his expertise to such prestigious publishers as Harper Collins and the National Geographic Society. Over the course of his career, Mr. Bivera has documented combat and humanitarian missions and maritime operations, including the Bosnia/Herzegovina conflict, the Israeli-Jordan Peace Treaty, the 1999 earthquake in Turkey and the war in Afghanistan.
A veteran himself, Mr. Bivera served in the United States Navy until retiring from the military in 2006. During this time, he was a combat cameraman for Combat Camera Atlantic from 1991 to 1994 and again from 1999 to 2001. He also worked for White House Television (WHTV) between 1994 and 1999. After departing from the military, Mr. Bivera served as a founding faculty member for The Red Badge Project, a storytelling workshop for veterans with post-traumatic stress and traumatic brain injuries, from 2012 to 2016 and was a co-founder of the Legion Photo Agency from 2007 to 2017.
To remain abreast of developments in his field, Mr. Bivera has maintained professional alignment with many organizations. Formerly a member of the education committee of the White House News Photographers Association and past president of the National Association of Naval Photography, he is the current National Press Photographers Association’s Department of Defense liaison, an advisory committee member of the D.C. Public Library Arts Council, and a member of the American Society of Media Photographers.
Mr. Bivera holds an advanced military photojournalism program certification from the Rochester Institute of Technology and was recently profiled in The Wall Street Journal. In the coming years, he aims to continue his revolutionary photojournalism work and eventually delve into screenwriting. Ultimately, he intends to portray the diversity and complexities of American culture through his photography as he continues to travel across the nation.
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