Darcy Padilla is a documentary photographer and photojournlaist focusing on long-term projects about struggle and the trans-generational effects.

Padilla’s honors include a Guggenheim Fellowship, Open Society Institute Individual Fellowship, Alicia Patterson Foundation Fellowship, Alexia Foundation Grant, Getty Images Grant, International Photo-reporter Grant, Canon Female Photojournalist Award, three World Press Photo Awards (first recipient for Long-term Projects, and a W. Eugene Smith Grant in Humanistic Photography.

Published and exhibited internationally, Padilla was commissioned for a year to photograph the 2016 election for Le Monde and had a solo exhibition of her ongoing project on the Pine Ridge Reservation at the 2017 Visa pour l’image, International Festival of Photojournalism in France. She was a judge on the second season of Sky Arts’ Master of Photography, a television program simulcast to Austria, Germany, Ireland, Italy, and the United Kingdom.

She has given artist talks at the de Young Museum in San Francisco, the Centre d'Art Santa Mònica in Barcelona, DOK-Festival (Norway), and Lumix Festival (Germany). Participating in panels at London Photo (United Kingdom) and Milano Photo Week (Italy). Lecturing at Stanford University, Syracuse’s Newhouse School, UC Berkeley, and leading workshops at Rencontres d’Arles (France).

Padilla’s recent book Family Love published in France by Editions de La Martinière, follows a family for 21-years—an intimate story of poverty, AIDS, and social issues. 

She holds a BA in Journalism from San Francisco State University and a MFA in Art Studio from the University of California, Davis.

Padilla is a member photographer of Agence VU' in Paris.