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FRANÇAIS

Klaus Reisinger was born in 1971 in Vienna.
His professional photo career started at age fourteen while in high school working freelance for the Austrian Television photo department. In 1989, as the iron curtain disintegrated and one Eastern Block country after the other lived its revolution Klaus was hired as a photographer for Reuters Eastern Europe. He covered the exodus from East Germany, Czechoslovakia and Hungary, the Romanian revolution and the hostage crises in Iraq.
He joined the U.S. photo agency Black Star in 1991, reporting from Iraq and Turkey during the Gulf War. While based in Moscow for four years he covered the collapse of communism as a contract photographer for U.S. News and World Report in the former Soviet Union. In 1992, he was awarded the Young photographer Award by the International Center of Photography (ICP) in New York. He is the youngest winner ever of the prize. His stories from the years of conflict in the former Soviet Republics, long term projects on opium in Afghanistan and Religion in Russia, reports from Somalia, Haiti and Yemen were published in Time, Newsweek, U.S. News and World Report and Stern. In 1995, Klaus won the Picture of the Year - Award of Excellence (POY) for his photography in Rwanda and decided to move on to the production of television documentaries.
He produced and filmed « The Village of Cooks » a short documentary broadcast by Planete and Channel Four - UK. In 1997, he co-founded with his partner Frederique Lengaigne COMPASS Films, a film production company based in Paris. Leaving war and conflict behind, Klaus turned to nature and wildlife instead.
From 1998 to 2000, he produced and filmed « Elephant Power » a 52-mn documentary on wild elephants in Burma for National Geographic Explorer. By chance, he was in New York on September 11, 2001 and followed a group of firefighters in the rubble minutes after the collapse of the towers of the World Trade Center. His pictures were published worldwide and won the Grand Prix du Festival du Scoop d'Angers. From 2000 to 2003, he followed a group of sea nomads in the Mergui Archipelago and produced « Burma's Forbidden Islands», a 52-mn documentary for National Geographic Explorer. In 2005 and 2006, with his partner, he shot, edited, and produced "RED VELVET" a one-hour film on the Siberian Maral deer.
In 2006, Klaus started a new project on Asian elephants, which includes a photo book, an exhibition and a documentary film.
Klaus is a cinematographer, photographer, film editor and producer, active airplane pilot and diver. He speaks fluent German, English and French and has a smattering of Russian.

Awards etc.

1992 ICP Young Photographer Award
International Center of Photography - New York

1992 The Art Directors National Exhibition (N.Y.) Silver Award

1994 Perpignan Photo Festival
Projection and Conference - Les Cayes, Haiti

1995 POY - Picture of the Year
Magazine Feature Picture
Award of Excellence ? Rwandan Refugees

1997 World Press Photo Master Class
Participant

2000 Best Educational Program ELEPHANT POWER for National Geographic Explorer, documentary film 52 min - Missoula International wildlife film festival

2001 World Trade Center September 11, 2001 Grand Prix de Scoop - Photography, Festival du Scoop d'Angers - France

2004 ? Best Film - BURMA'S FORBIDDEN ISLANDS for National Geographic Explorer, documentary film 52 min - International Cultural Film Symposium Montana CINE International Film Festival

2004 - Cine Golden Eagle for Burma's Forbidden Islands

2006 - Best Independent Film - Red Velvet - Montana Cine International Film Festival

2007 - Best Independent Film - Red Velvet - Missoulla International Wildlife Film Festival

2007 - RED VELVET - Finalist in People and Animals Category of the JACKSON HOLE Film Festival.