Ariel Zambelich is a freelance photojournalist and a Lead Photo Editor for the Wall Street Journal, where she collaborates to tell stories through photojournalism and design. A Los Angeles native, she graduated from San Francisco State University with a degree in journalism. She attended the Eddie Adams Workshop in 2008, was nominated for World Press Photo’s Joop Swart Masterclass in 2009, and attended the Kalish Workshop for photo editing in 2012.

Her photography clients include the New York Times + NY Times Magazine, Huck Magazine (UK), WIRED + WIRED Japan, Bloomberg Businessweek, the Nobel Foundation, the Atlantic, NatureBridge, California Sunday Magazine, the Harvard Business Review, Etiqueta Negra, M le magazine du Monde, and The FADER. She has also done freelance editing work for the Matte agency, Buzzfeed News, Outside Magazine, and AARP.

She was most recently the Senior Photo Editor for The Intercept. Previously she was the Supervising Editor of Photography + Art Director for NPR Visuals, and a photo editor for WIRED. She spent several years co-directing a documentary photography gallery in San Francisco. She also co-edited Pictures on the Radio, a book featuring the work of the late photojournalist David P. Gilkey.

She is a board member with the Authority Collective, and a general member of Diversify.Photo, organizations that focus on amplifying the voices of female-identifying and minority photographers + visual journalists. She is also on the Organizing Committee for the Freelance Solidarity Project, a union for freelance media workers, and a member of the 2019 Cohort of ONA's Women's Leadership Accelerator.

Current location: NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK 

twitter: @azambelich

are you an editor looking for a photographer? email: ariel.zambelich [at] gmail.com 

are you a photographer pitching a story? email: ariel.zambelich [at] wsj.com