Executive Editor Julie Pace and Vice President and Head of Global News Production Derl McCrudden announced on Thursday a key appointment: Lucy Nicholson will join AP as its new director of photography.
Here is their memo to staff:
We are delighted to announce that Lucy Nicholson will be the next Director of Photography for The Associated Press. Lucy is an exceptionally talented photojournalist and newsroom leader, and the right person to take on this essential role at a time of significant change and opportunity at the AP and across the industry.
Lucy has a truly unique range of expertise and skill. She is an award-winning photographer, photo editor, videographer, writer and leader. She joins the AP from Reuters, where she has most recently led the agency’s photography in Europe, overseeing a team of 190 staff and freelance photographers in 50 countries. In that time, she led photo coverage of major stories including the war in Ukraine, managed workflow changes to boost speed and competitiveness, and increased the gender diversity of photographers in the region.
Lucy was previously a staff photographer for Reuters, based in Los Angeles for 17 years. She will be familiar to many of our field photographers from her coverage of stories across the U.S. and around the world. She was part of the team that won the Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Photography in 2019 for coverage of migrants heading to the U.S., and has done everything from politics to soccer, demonstrations to climate change. She’s covered an expansive range of sports, including eight Olympics, 16 NBA finals and several NFL Super Bowls.
Lucy will be the first woman to serve as AP’s Director of Photography. She will be based in London and report to Derl. She’ll work alongside Sara Gillesby, our head of global video, and Ravi Nessman, head of global text, and collaborate closely with regional and beat team newsgathering leaders.
Originally from the U.K., Lucy is half-Polish. She has a master’s degree in journalism, science and climate from Columbia University, studied international politics at Penn State, and attended the Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY, where she participated in a program on news innovation and leadership.
We expect Lucy to join the AP around the end of May, and we’ll make sure that everyone has the opportunity to hear from her when she formally starts.
We want to thank our photographers, editors and photo leaders for their feedback and insights during this process. We have an incredible photo legacy at AP, and we’re excited about the future under Lucy’s leadership.
