Heidi Levine


Heidi Levine is an American freelance photojournalist who has worked for the Associated Press, Sipa Press, and The Washington Post. She has spent much of her career covering the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

Early life and education

Levine was born and raised in Boston, Massachusetts. Her father was passionate about photography, and bought Levine her first camera; they would walk around Boston taking pictures. Her first interest in the field was to photograph under-privileged areas of Boston and New York. At the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, she was the school paper photographer. In 1983 during a school break, at age 21, she went to Israel to work for six weeks at a kibbutz. While there, she applied to the Associated Press and received a job offer. Figuring that working as a photojournalist would be educationally better than college journalism classes, she took the offer, and in 1983 started her photojournalism career in Israel as a staffer.

Career

Working at A.P. in Israel gave Levine experience in many facets of the field, including editing, lab activities, and interacting with subscribers. She reports difficulty breaking into the field as a woman, describing it as a "boys club." In 1991, she joined the Sipa Press Photo Agency. Based in Israel, most of her coverage has been the violence in Israel, Gaza and the West Bank. She has covered conflicts in Afghanistan, Kosovo, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, and Syria on assignment. She has also covered topics such as female feticide in India, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the Syrian refugee crisis.
In February 2022, she went to Ukraine on assignment for The Washington Post. While there covering the Russian invasion of Ukraine, she photographed and commented on the aftermath of the Bucha massacre. She noted that "most of the images took could never be published because they're too shocking."
As of October, 2024, Levine is covering the Gaza war.
She has described covering the Israeli–Palestinian conflict as "very, very personal" and intimate.
Her pictures have been published in many outlets, including The Washington Post, The New York Times, Stern, National Geographic, Paris Match, L'Express, Newsweek, Time, The [New York Times Magazine], The Sunday Times Magazine, Forbes, and The Globe and Mail.

Humanitarian focus

She feels that the power of photography can make a difference by raising awareness and evoking empathy for those affected by conflicts and crises. She has the "ability to capture the essence of conflicts and their impact on people's lives." She has "depth of compassion for the people she encounters," and "a passion for bearing witness."

Awards

Levine has lived in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, and has three children. In Jerusalem, she lived in a mixed neighborhood to expose her children to people of different backgrounds. Her work away from home and in danger zones has led to some disappointments among her children, family and friends. She has had to make compromises that would not allow her "to be the best photographer wished to be."