Amy Toensing is a visual journalist committed to telling stories with sensitivity and depth. A regular contributor to National Geographic magazine for over twenty years, Toensing has photographed and reported on cultures and topics around the world, including indigenous communities and their connection to land, the impact of drought on communities in Australia and land and social rights for women in Uganda and India. Her last three stories for National Geographic magazine centered around the human relationship to conservation efforts in the United States: a re-wilding project in Montana, bringing back the American Chestnut Tree through genetic manipulation and a 740 mile protected paddling path that runs from New York to Maine. Toensing has also co-directing two short documentary films, one about urban refugee children in Nairobi and the other on women’s land rights in Uganda. In 2018 Toensing was named the Mike Wallace Fellow in Investigative Reporting at University of Michigan. She is currently a National Geographic Explorer, FUJIFILM Creator and BenQ Ambassador. 

 

Toensing’s work has been exhibited globally and recognized with numerous awards, including two solo exhibits at Visa Pour L’image, Festival of the Photograph in Perpignan France (2012 + 2017). Her work has also appeared in Smithsonian, The Boston Globe, The Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, Time Magazine, and National Geographic Traveler. One of her Australian outback photographs was chosen as one of National Geographic magazine’s all time, 50 Best Photos. Toensing’s work was included in the group exhibit Women of Vision celebrating National Geographic magazine’s female photographers.

 

Toensing began her professional career in 1994 as a staff photographer at her New Hampshire hometown paper, The Valley News. She then worked for the New York Times Washington D.C. bureau covering the White House and Capitol Hill during the Clinton administration. In 1998, Toensing left D.C. to obtain her Master’s Degree from Ohio University, School of Visual Communication.

 

In addition to her photojournalism and film work, Toensing teaches photography to kids and young adults in underserved communities, including Burmese refugees in Baltimore, young photojournalists in Islamabad, Pakistan and Syrian refugee children in Jordan.

 

Toensing lives in central New York with her husband, Matt Moyer, also a photographer and filmmaker, and their daughter.