Andrea Ellen Reed is an award-winning director and photographer who specializes in film, stills, soundscapes, and creative direction. Her work explores the historical impact marginalized communities have on American Society. Through this work, she explores themes of grief, reproductive health, motherhood, integration and communal uprising. Her work reflects a nuanced humanity that gives moments of pause in a world consumed by distraction and misdirection.

Andrea was awarded the Tim Hetherington Visionary Award for her transformative experimental film, Unsighted, which examines the societal impact of brutality on the Black American psyche. In the height of the pandemic, she received a grant from the National Geographic Society to explore loss in Black Midwestern communities due to COVID-19 with a multimedia project that features still portraits and long-form audio interviews. This profound body of work was published in Time and National Geographic’s COVID-19 anthology, Inside the Curve. Her latest piece, Radical Resilience, was awarded a Silver Telly Award for branded content promoting social issues.

Andrea’s journey as a mother of micropreemie twins shaped the way she sees love, light, and loss. It taught her that grief and joy can live in the same moment. The delicateness of life is what move her to create narratives through the eyes of grace, abundance, and grit. She has translated the stories of people from all walks of life through photography, film, and/or creative direction for ProPublica, The New York Times, CNN, The Trace, Starbucks, Vogue, The United Way, and The Minnesota Historical Society. 

Andrea currently works out of Raleigh, NC and Minneapolis, MN , where she lives with her husband and three children. Andrea takes assignments and shows globally.