Who is Todd Heisler? NY Times photographer captures viral photo of Kamala Harris' great-niece Amara Ajagu listening to her DNC speech

A viral photo by American photojournalist Todd Heisler shows Amara Ajagu, Vice President Kamala Harris' great-niece, listening to her speech at the 2024 Democratic National Convention.

Todd Heisler clicked a photo of Amara from the back, who was seemingly looking at Kamala Harris give her DNC speech.

Todd Heisler is a Pulitzer prize winner and a staff photographer for The New York Times, based in New York City. According to his bio on the official site of The New York Times,

"I cover just about everything from politics and breaking news to daily life in New York City and beyond, aiming to take a deeper look at issues and communities."

He even mentioned that he was present in the city during the pandemic to report several issues. The bio added:

"My goal is to help readers look at something in a new way. Throughout the pandemic, I remained in New York City, producing several long-term projects that captured life in the city..."

Having been a photojournalist for over two decades, Heisler began working with the outlet in 2006. In the biography, Todd Heisler revealed that he developed immense interest in photojournalism when he was working at Illinois State University newspaper, Daily Vidette. In 2006, he also won the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography.

For the unversed, not just Amara, but her mother Meena Harris and sister Leela Ajagu were also present at the DNC on the last day.

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Everything to know about the life and career of photojournalist Todd Heisler

Born in 1972, Todd Heisler is a well-known name in the journalism industry. He graduated from Illinois State University back in 1994, about 12 years after which he began working for The New York Times. Before working for this popular outlet, Todd Heisler had also been employed with Rocky Mountain News in Denver, as a staff photographer. In his official site, Heisler further wrote,

"It is a privilege to be allowed into people’s lives, and I feel it is important to treat them with respect and dignity."

Along with the 2006 Pulitzer Prize, he also received one in 2003, for covering Colorado wildfires. He received the award under the category of "Breaking News Photography." He was also a part of "One in Eight Million," which was a multimedia series of The Times.

According to this project, the team had to capture a different New Yorker every week for an entire year. This role led Heisler to recieve an Emmy in September 2010. As per Todd Heisler's official website, the photojournalist is a frequent contributor to Lens which is The Times' photo blog.

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Kamala Harris' niece and grand-nieces were present at the DNC 2024 on the last day

August 22, 2024, marked the final date for the Democratic National Convention 2024. One of the highlights of the day would be the presence of Kamala Harris' family members- her niece Meera and grand-nieces Amara and Leela. While Amara was seen wearing a pink pant suit, Leela was wearing a light blue frilly dress, as reported by US News.

Kerry Washington introduced Amara and Leela on the stage who further went on trying to teach everyone how to pronounce Harris' name.

During the introduction, Kerry said,

"It's come to my attention that there are some folks who struggle — or pretend to struggle — with the proper pronunciation of our future president’s name."

Then Amara said,

"First you say ‘comma’ like the comma in a sentence. Then you say ‘la’ like la-la-la-la-la."

Netizens had praised the photographer and reacted positively to the photo.