Shane Bauer grew up in Onamia, MN with his mother, Cindy Hickey, and in San Leandro, CA with his father, Al Bauer.  He has two younger sisters, Nicole Lindstrom and Shannon Bauer.  Shane has always loved to travel and truly enjoys the outdoors.

He graduated with honors from the University of California, Berkeley with a degree in Peace and Conflict Studies and a double minor in Journalism and Arabic in 2007. Shane speaks fluent Arabic and has spent a great deal of time in the Middle East and North Africa during the past 7 years, including living in Damascus, Syria, since the fall of 2008.

Shane is a freelance journalist and photographer whose writing and award-winning photographs have been published in the US, UK, Middle East, and Canada. In 2008, Shane’s portrayal of the lives of people living in residential hotels in San Francisco earned him first place for independent audio slideshow features in the National Press Photographers’ Association Best of Photojournalism contest. In 2007, he was a national finalist in photojournalism for the Harry Chapin Media Awards, a national finalist for feature photography for the Society of Professional Journalists’ 2007 Mark of Excellence Awards, and received the Lyon Prize in photography.

This year, Shane’s photography was published in This Day of Change, a collection of images of hope taken by 132 photographers from 79 countries to mark the day of President Barack Obama’s inauguration. Shane is currently working on a documentary about Darfur.