Kira Pollack is a leading creative director and photo editor known for pioneering new approaches to visual storytelling. Throughout her career, she has redefined how photography, emerging technology, and digital media intersect to expand the possibilities of visual journalism.
Currently, she is a 2025 Walter Shorenstein Media & Democracy Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School, where she is exploring how AI-driven tools can deepen our understanding of visual history, support authorship and legacy, and create new pathways for image analysis and discovery. She recently completed a fellowship at Stanford and USC’s Starling Lab, where she led a pilot project applying archival protocols to preserve and authenticate photojournalistic collections in the era of generative AI. Her research culminated in the Washington Post essay, “Photos Are Disappearing, One Archive at a Time.”
Previously, Pollack was Creative Director and Deputy Editor of Vanity Fair, where she oversaw more than 50 covers, collaborated with leading photographers and artists, and shaped the visual direction of The Great Fire, the special issue guest-edited by Ta-Nehisi Coates.
She spent nearly a decade at TIME, serving as Director of Photography and later Deputy Editor—one of the few creative leads to ascend to a top editorial role. There, she led the visual and editorial strategy for landmark multimedia projects including The 100 Most Influential Photographs of All Time and Firsts, a series profiling trailblazing women from Oprah Winfrey to Hillary Clinton. These projects spanned documentary films, interactive digital experiences, special print editions, and hardcover books, cementing TIME’s leadership in visual journalism.
Pollack also commissioned and directed the visual identity of hundreds of TIME covers, launched Red Border Films (now TIME Studios), and created LightBox, an award-winning digital photography platform. Her work on Beyond 9/11, a multimedia project featuring 46 short films and an HBO documentary, earned a News & Documentary Emmy Award. She also commissioned the World Press Photo of the Year-winning portrait of Bibi Aisha, the Afghan woman whose image became a global symbol of resilience.
Earlier in her career, Pollack was Deputy Photo Editor at The New York Times Magazine, where she helped produce major visual projects including Obama’s People, a historic 60-page portfolio published ahead of President Obama’s first inauguration.
Her work has been recognized with two Emmy Awards, five National Magazine Awards, multiple Webby Awards, a Lucie Award for Photo Editor of the Year, and honors from the American Society of Magazine Editors. She has served as a juror for World Press Photo, the W. Eugene Smith Grant, and the Tribeca Film Festival. Her TED Talk, “What Makes a Photograph Influential?”, has been widely viewed.
Pollack lectures internationally on photography, authorship, and the ethical use of emerging technologies in journalism. She is based in New York City.