Jim Bourg is a photojournalist and news photographer based in Washington. He has worked as professional photographer since the age of 16, when he became the youngest freelancer to ever work on assignment for The Washington Post, while still in high school. Since then, he has earned all his income from photography and photojournalism. Based in Boston and Washington he has worked on assignment in all 50 U.S. states and more than 35 foreign countries. Jim has covered many presidential campaigns, inaugurations, international summits, military invasions and natural disasters as well as World Cup Soccer and Olympic games around the world. It would be hard to find a news publication worldwide that has not published his photos. As a freelancer Jim has worked on assignment for The New York Times, Time, Newsweek, People, Prevention, Paris Match, Stern, American Banker, Entrepreneur, UPI, AFP and Reuters, with many of the magazine assignments being portraits. In 2023 he completed nearly 20 years as a Reuters staff photographer and photo editor based in Washington. Recent corporate clients while freelancing have included the U.S. State Department, NATO and the International Monetary Fund. Jim was the Chief Photographer for the 2024 NATO Summit in Washington, leading a team of photographers while both shooting and editing.

Jim’s work has taken him inside the Kremlin, the Vatican, Beijing’s Zhongnanhai leadership compound and the Saudi Royal Palaces in Riyadh. He has extensive experience at the White House and on Capitol Hill, both of which he has trained and guided other photographers in covering. Jim has been a speaker at the NPPA’s Northern Short Course as well as many White House News Photographers Association (WHNPA) events. He has specialized in negotiating access for still photographers with the White House, at the Capitol, for political conventions, presidential debates and with individual political campaigns. Jim has served multiple terms as an elected member of the U.S. Senate Standing Committee of Press Photographers and as Vice President of the White House News Photographers Association (WHNPA). He has been a leader in the industry at negotiating access and coverage for photographers.

Jim’s photos have won awards from the White House News Photographers Association, the Boston Press Photographers Association, NPPA’s Best of Photojournalism contest and his work has been included in multiple Pulitzer Prize nominations. In 2009, his campaign photo of Republican presidential nominee John McCain sticking his tongue out behind Democratic nominee Barack Obama at the end of the final presidential debate won the “Photographers Giving Back” global award for “Humoristic Photo of the Year.”. Throughout his career Jim has specialized in capturing uniquely humorous and revealing moments as well as compelling portraits. His pictures have been published on the covers of People, Mother Jones, Spy, Esquire and many other magazines. One of his pictures is featured in the book “LIFE Classic Photographs” and others have been displayed at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History.