Michael Robinson Chávez has been a photographer at The Times since 2007 and lives outside Los Angeles. He has worked for the Washington Post, the Boston Globe and the Associated Press. He has covered wide-ranging international assignments in more than 45 countries including: the Congolese civil war, violence in El Salvador, elections in Nepal, life in India’s slums, economic decline in the United States, the 2006 Hezbollah-Israeli war, the Georgian-Russian war in 2008, the conflict in Israel-Palestine and the U.S.-led invasion and occupation of Iraq.

His work has been exhibited widely, including the Visa Pour l’image festival in France, which showed his 10-year project on Peru. His photographs from the Lebanon-Israeli war of 2006 were exhibited at the War Photo Ltd. gallery in Dubrovnik, Croatia, and at the Museu Memorial de l’Exili in Spain.

Chávez won the Scripps Howard Foundation National Award for photojournalism in 2008, and his photographs were featured in the 2009 Photo District News Photography Annual. He has twice been named photographer of the year by the White House News Photographers Assn. in 2004 and 2007 and received an award of excellence as newspaper photographer of the year in 2008 by Pictures of the Year International. Other awards include honors from the Northern Short Course and the National Press Photographers Assn. in 2004, the Atlanta Photojournalism Seminar and the Society of News Design.

He has published a book of his photographs from Peru: “Awaiting the Rain.” In addition, Chávez teaches and lectures at workshops in countries including Mexico, India, Egypt, Peru, the United States and El Salvador.

michael.robinsonchavez@latimes.com