I'm Eli, a freelance documentary photographer and journalist based in Denver, Colorado, and adjunct instructor of multimedia journalism at CU Boulder. I often explore systemic injustices, trauma and healing, culture, identity and place through visual storytelling. I also love telling stories through audio, video and words.
My photography has been featured in The New York Times, ProPublica, NPR, Bloomberg Businessweek Magazine, and elsewhere. I regularly contribute photography to The Denver Post. In 2020 through 2021, I received an Economic Hardship Reporting Project grant to document trauma and healing in the wake of police brutality. Recently, I attended the 74th Missouri Photo Workshop in Excelsior Springs, MO.
My audio reporting and/or production has been heard on NPR, Colorado Public Radio, and City Cast Denver, among other outlets. My writing has been published in The Guardian, NPR, Indian Country Today, Denverite and elsewhere.
Previously, I interned as a visual journalist at The Arizona Republic, Austin American-Statesman and Bozeman Daily Chronicle, producing news photography and some videography. I earned a BA in journalism from the University of Montana in 2019, where I worked for the independent student paper there, the Montana Kaimin.
I grew up in the suburbs of Phoenix, Arizona. My interest in documentary photography stemmed from escaping the sprawl to bask in the natural world of the Colorado Plateau. It eventually evolved into a passion for documenting the human experience in all its complexity and wonder. Growing up in a liminal space, the son of an American Jewish mother and an immigrant Kabyle and Muslim father, has afforded me a unique and nuanced perspective to tell stories.
I love food, identifying flowers, skateboarding, basketball, biking in the city, jumping in rivers and just exploring. Photo at right by Irynka Hromotska. Cheers!
- +1 (480) 512-2035
- eimadali16@gmail.com
- Denver, Colorado
- Available for assignments
