Omar Havana

Omar Havana, 1975 Madrid, Spain.



Spanish Freelance Photojournalist represented by Getty Images. Based in Kathmandu, Nepal, since 2014, previously based in Cambodia from 2008 to 2014.

Omar started photography at the age of 23 while living in the UK, working with Jan Smith, a British photojournalist who had covered the Romanian Revolution. Over the years, he has traveled to more than 60 countries, which has given him the opportunity to start his career in travel photography.

In 2005, during a trip to Cuba, Omar started his career as a professional freelance photojournalist, as Hurricane Wilma hit the Cuban capital, La Habana. Since then, he has covered different human rights projects for both national and international media, as well as many different stories in several countries, mainly in Southeast Asia, focusing always on the dramas of the lives he has in front of the camera.

As a freelance photographer for many years, he has also worked in other fields in order to make a living. Since 1999, when he started in photography, hospitality was his main source of income as he was starting to publish his first travel photographs. However, he has worked as a professional photojournalist since 2005, and since 2009, Omar’s full time job has been photography and photojournalism, covering stories in Spain, Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar, Libya, Egypt, and Cambodia, the country where most of his stories have been based since he moved to the country in 2008. While in Cambodia, he has alternated his work as a photojournalist with working in commercial photography, counting clients such as JP Morgan-Chase, Exxon Mobil, and the Raffles Hotel chain.

Since 2012, Omar has been represented by several international agencies as the French Agency Wostok Press, the Spanish Agency Cordon Press/Corbis Spain, SIPA Press in France and EPA in Thailand. Finally, since November 2013, Omar is represented as a stringer by Getty Images International.

In 2014, one of Omar's photos shot in Siem Reap's rubbish dumps has been selected among the best 150 photos of the year by Getty Images News and as one of the most powerful stories of 2014 by MSN.

His photos during the earthquake that hit Nepal have been published in thousands of publications around the world, including front pages in The New York Times and stories in TIME Magazine, National Geographic and Paris Match among many others.

His stories and photographies have been published in international media, including Paris Match, Al Jazeera, The New York Times, The Atlantic, BBC, National Geographic, Financial Times, TIME Magazine, Los Angeles Times, The Guardian, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, CNN, Stern, Spiegel and Sports Illustrated, amongst many other international media outlets. Omar has also collaborated on many stories with international organizations, including WaterAid Nepal, UNICEF Regional Office South Asia, the Cambodian Center for Human Rights, Handicap International and the Cambodian Acid Survivors Charity, as well as many others.

Awards:

2015 - Second place, Best News Photographer of the Year 2014. Getty Images APAC

2015 - Second Place, Best News Portfolio of the Year 2014. Getty Images APAC