Babita Patel

Humanitarian Photographer &

Executive Director, KIOO Project

New York City

Babita Patel is on a mission to evolve societal’s “us versus them” way of thinking to an “us and them” through the power of storytelling. As a freelance humanitarian photographer documenting social impact issues around the world, her work has appeared on ABC, Al Jazeera, HBO, MSNBC, NY1 and PBS; featured in Forbes, The Guardian, The Marshall Project, The New York Times, Slate and The Washington Post; and exhibited in multiple countries.

Babita is the fresh(wo)man author of Breaking Out in Prison, which introduces 15 men who were locked out of society long before they were locked up. The book puts a human face on systemic racism, the epidemic of mass incarceration and the need for community investment.

She is the founder and Executive Director of KIOO Project, an NGO that advances gender equality across the globe by teaching photography to girls who, in turn, teach photography to boys.

Along with co-founder Tara Abrahams, Babita launched kahani, a new print magazine of stories for girls by girls from around the world to inform, elevate and inspire one another.

Babita has walked across a bridge into Myanmar, hunted with a Maasai warrior and slept in a Bedouin cave in Petra.

Babita lives what she loves.