Jose R. Lopez is currently a freelance photo editor, editing for the print edition of The New York Times as well as editing the various Championships for the USGA, working with a team of some of the best golf photographers in the country. He is also helping to build the digital archives of the USGA which currently holds over 500,000 images. His freelance work as a picture editor have included such clients as the XFL football league, ABCNews.com and The Pulitzer Prize committee, where he was the first photographer ever to be invited in to document the judging process of this prestigious journalistic award.
In his 40+ year career as a photojournalist and picture editor, he worked for various newspapers around the country including the Albuquerque Tribune (New Mexico), San Angelo Standard Times (Texas), the Rocky Mountain News (Colorado) and The New York Times.
His career as a staff photographer for The NYT included an 8.5 year posting in Washington, DC covering the administrations of Reagan, Bush (41) and Clinton. Returning to the New York office, he covered the end of the Bosnian war, five Super Bowls, two Olympic Games, various World Series, as well as national news.
Lopez made the switch to picture editing at the NYT and edited the National, Foreign, Real Estate, and Business sections. He was part of the team that won both Pulitzers in 2001 for their coverage of the 9-11 terrorist attacks. He was then assigned to the new digital app, NYTNOW, which helped to lead the digital revolution of the NYT. Many of the practices that he used with the app were incorporated into the current website, nytimes.com.
He currently lives in Tarrytown, NY with his wife, journalist and author Caitlin Kelly.