Hiram Alejandro Durán covers Latino and Mayan communities as a photojournalist for El Tímpano. He’s from the El Paso-Ciudad Juárez border region. Although he is fourth-generation Mexican-American, Durán is the first person in his family to be raised and educated in the U.S. Before moving to New York City in 2018, he worked as a shoe salesman while studying Media Advertising and Marketing at the University of Texas at El Paso. He joined the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism with the intention of becoming a print reporter. But after auditing an intro to photojournalism course, he discovered the power of photography as a storytelling tool. His photography has won awards, and his work has been featured in the New York Times, the Marshall Project, the Pulitzer Center, Imprint News, Riverdale Press, The City, Bklyner and the Mail & Guardian in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Beat: Latino and Mayan immigrant communities (Catchlight photojournalism partnership)
This photojournalist produces groundbreaking and empathetic journalism that is sourced in community engagement within the Bay Area’s Latino and Mayan immigrant communities. They help us amplify the stories shared by our community and document the individuals behind those stories, producing powerful portraits and photo essays as a part of our original reporting, and designing creative opportunities for in-person engagement and participatory storytelling.