Nir Elias, born in 1971, began work as a fashion photographer after graduating from the Hadassah College Photography and Digital Media Department. He soon changed his area of concentration to photojournalism and became a staff member for a Tel Aviv photography agency that distributes news photography throughout Israel as well as to Reuters. Currently, as a freelance photographer for Reuters he covers the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as well as other international stories; his work appears in major publications such as Newsweek, Time, L'express, and The International Herald Tribune. A recipient of numerous awards, Elias received first place in 2003 from the National Press Photographers Association in the magazine news category and in 2002 was recognized for the picture of the year for L'express.  He began his career at Reuters in 2001, working as a photographer in Jerusalem. A few years later, He moved to Tel Aviv, Israel. In 2005, He took up the photographer position in Shanghai, China and covered general stories along with the Sichuan earthquake, the Tibetan uprising around Western China and the Xinjiang/Urumqi riots. Currently, he lives and works in Tel Aviv covering the ongoing conflict. THE CHINA I MET: "When I got the senior photographer job in Shanghai in late 2005, Reinhard Krause, who was China’s chief photographer, well advised me to drop any preconceptions I might have about the place..." http://blogs.reuters.com/nir-elias/