Retouching for Tariq Zaidi

Tariq Zaidi is a freelance photographer based out of London, UK. Tariq pursues his passion of capturing the dignity, strength and soul of people, within their environment. His photography focuses on documenting social issues, inequality, traditions and endangered communities around the world.

Mikael Eliasson has worked closely with Tariq for many years doing the retouching for him and often collaborate on image selections.

Tariq is currently working on a long-term personal project entitled "Capturing the Human Spirit" - a visual anthology about hope, dignity and community in some of the poorest regions in the world. The first 3 chapters of this work from the slum communities of Haiti, Brazil and Cambodia was featured at Visa Pour L'image, International Festival of Photojournalism, in September 2018.

In Feb 2018, Tariq was awarded one of the Premier Awards in POY75 (Pictures of the Year International Competition) - "Photographer of the Year" Award of Excellence for his work from North Korea, Congo and Brazil and also for 2nd place in the Feature Category in the same year. He was also a winner of PDN Photo Annual 2018 (Photojournalism / Documentary Category) and was awarded The Marty Forscher Fellowship Fund for outstanding achievement in Humanistic Photography, presented by PDN and Parsons School of Design, USA. In 2019, he was nominated to the Prix Pictet. In 2020, his work from Congo, El Salvador and Georgia was recognised 5 times by POY77 (Pictures of the Year International Competition) including 1st place for Portraits Series, 2nd place Spot News and 3rd Place Issue Reporting. His work from El Salvador has also been honoured as a 2020 Amnesty International Media Awards finalist (Photojournalism category) in recognition of his commitment to human rights. In Sep 2020, Tariq's work entitled "Sapeurs: Ladies and Gentlemen of the Congo" will be shown at Visa Pour L'image, International Festival of Photojournalism.
His first book Sapeurs: Ladies and Gentlemen of the Congo will be published in 2020.

His work is represented by Zuma Press (USA), Caters News Agency (UK) and Getty Images (UK).