Paula Lerner’s passion for photographing people has taken her from the rain forests of Brazil to the back roads of New England. Since 1985 she has been commissioned by a wide variety of national and international clients in addition to pursuing her own projects. Her editorial roster includes Smithsonian, People, Time, Newsweek, Business Week, plus a host of European and Asian magazines. Among her corporate and advertising clients are Agfa, Bright Horizons, Harvard, MIT, Boston Children’s Hospital, and The Commonwealth Fund. Her personal work has been shown in venues throughout the northeast and has been part of national traveling exhibits.

Paula photographs people in all walks of life, and her assignments range from stories on cancer patients, factory workers, and corporate executives to profiles of eminent scientists, authors, and performing artists. Her images have been selected multiple times for publication in the juried annuals of Communication Arts and American Photography. Her photo essay “A Widow on Welfare: An Untold Story,” won First Place for Issue Reporting in the prestigious 55th Pictures of the Year competition.

Most recently, Paula collaborated with Deb Murphy on the book, “Why We Walk: The Inspirational Journey Toward a Cure for Breast Cancer,” which tells the poignant and personal stories of some of the hundreds of thousands of people who participate in breast cancer fundraising walks each year. The book was published by Rutledge Hill Press in the fall of 2005, and additional information is available at www.whywewalkbook.com . Another current project involves documenting the work of the Business Council for Peace (a.k.a. Bpeace, www.bpeace.com), an organization made up of vibrant businesswomen and men who help women in war torn regions set up self-sustaining businesses to help foster peace at a grassroots level. In 2005 Paula traveled to Afghanistan twice to cover their ongoing programs.

Paula earned a BA in Philosophy from Harvard in 1984. She lives near Boston with her husband and their two daughters. Paula’s stock photography is represented by Aurora & Quanta Productions, an international photo agency in Portland, Maine. In her rare spare moments she can be found on cliff faces indulging an addiction to rock climbing.