Kim Newton’s interest in the arts and photography started at a very early age. Kim’s father was the beloved British actor Robert Newton whose own father was a painter and member of the British Royal Academy of Arts, Algernon Newton. When Kim’s father  died, at the age of 50, Kim’s uncle, photographer Dan Budnik, took him under his wing and introduced him to the fascinating world of photojournalism. Some of Kim’s earliest experience includes trekking in both Mexico and Hawaii with Dan as he photographed for the Time & Life series Last of the American Wilderness. These early influences led Kim to a forty-three year career in photojournalism.

Newton’s experience in photojournalism, began as a freelance photojournalist based in Tokyo, Japan and Seoul, South Korea covering Asian news, business and feature stories for the New York Times, Forbes, Business Week, People, Time, U.S. News & World Report and Le Figaro to name a few. Notable assignments include: documentation of China’s Muslim Uighur minority in the remote western province of Xinjiang, political and social unrest leading up to and including South Korea’s first free elections, culminating in Seoul’s hosting of the 1988 Olympics, ceremonies and cultural reaction surrounding the death of Japan’s Emperor Hirohito.

From Asia, he joined Reuters News Pictures in London as picture editor for Europe, Africa and the Middle East. At Reuters he was responsible for editing the region’s news coverage that included the release of Nelson Mandela, South Africa’s first all race elections, Russia’s democracy movement, the assassination of Israeli Labor Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, Britain’s handover of Hong Kong to China, the death and funeral of Britain’s Princess of Wales and wars in Somalia, Rwanda and Bosnia.

Newton then joined the Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service in Washington, D.C. as senior photo editor for international news. While at Knight Ridder Newton oversaw the September 11 terrorist attacks, wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and Kosovo, conflicts in the Middle East, Indonesia and Russia. In addition, Newton coordinated a number of award winning projects that included the “Health Gap,” a series on minority health care issues and “A Taste of Slavery,” a project that documented slavery in the Ivory Coast’s cocoa industry.

Kim Newton recently retired as Professor Emeritus from the School of Journalism at the University of Arizona in Tucson, where he taught visual journalism and multimedia journalism for 16 years. He currently travels extensively and has returned to freelancing.