After nearly 20 years working as a freelance photographer for the National Geographic magazine Sarah Leen joined the magazine staff as a Senior Photo Editor in 2004. In 2012 she became Senior Editor: Visual Story Development.
Leen graduated with a BA in Fine Arts in 1974 from the University of Missouri, Columbia and continued there with graduate studies at the Missouri School of Journalism. Leen was the College Photography of the Year in 1979 and worked as a staff photographer for both the Topeka Capital Journal and the Philadelphia Inquirer until 1982 when she began her freelance photography career. Her photography assignments for the National Geographic took her to the shores of Lake Baikal in Siberia, the Kamchatka peninsula in Russia’s Far East, Djenne, Mali in West Africa, the Republic of Macedonia, the Mexican volcano Popocatepetl and the suburbs of America for a series stories on Urban Sprawl, Cheap Oil and Alternative Energy.
Leen has won numerous awards for her photography in the Pictures of the Year (POYi) and World Press Photos competitions. In 2007 and 2008 she won first place in POYi’s Magazine Picture Editing Portfolio and second place Magazine Editing Portfolio in 2011 and 2012. Leen was the curator of the 2009 Water Issue exhibit at the Annenberg Place for Photography, the 2011 exhibit Beyond the Story: National Geographic Unpublished and the exhibit Profoundly Human: Lynn Johnson at the 2012 LOOK3 photo festival. Leen has taught photography and editing workshops at the Missouri Photo Workshops, the International Center for Photography in New York, the Maine Photographic Workshops and the Palm Beach Centre for Photography.