Jonny Pickup is an internationally published, multi-award-winning photojournalist, documentary photographer, and documentary filmmaker from London, England. His work focuses on the often unseen or forgotten areas of society, using still and motion imagery to help us question contemporary global issues. In 2021 he was awarded the Rory Peck Training Fund and is part of the Front Line Freelance Register.

In 2015—despite not having an undergraduate degree—Jonny was invited to start a Masters at Leeds University at the School of Media and Communication focussing on documentary film and photography. An unconventional invitation based on the exceptional portfolio he had developed independently. He graduated in 2016 with a high distinction winning the prestigious University award for outstanding work.

In 2018 he won the Platinum Remi Award at the 51st Huston International Film festival for his first documentary ‘The Bare Knuckle Carer’, past winners include directors such as George Lucas and the Coen Brothers. His second short ‘Ambazoina‘—which required him to be smuggled into Cameroon—won Best Documentary Short at Bafta Cymru qualifying Carmarthen Bay Film Festival in 2020, and is being distributed by Journeyman Shorts.

As a photojournalist, Jonny has covered world events and current affairs for publications such as National Geographic, The Telegraph, and Foreign Policy Magazine, and freelances for Getty Photo Agency. In 2019 he won Gold at Tokyo International Photography Awards. In 2020, he has become one of the 30-photographers selected to exhibit as part of the Paris Photo Prize, ‘State of the World’ exhibition. Commercially Jonny has been hired to photograph for some of the biggest global brands such as Panerai Watches.

Most recently, Jonny has documented the war in Nagorno-Karabakh, the ongoing social and political revolution in Belarus, and the development and modernisation of the small Yemeni island of Soqotra.

Further, he has been a guest lecturer at Thomas Moore University in Belgium. He is passionate about photography and filmmaking and is available for global assignments.