Liz O. Baylen joined the Los Angeles Times as a staff photographer in 2007. Since arriving, she has immersed herself in multimedia projects, combining sound with imagery to give an added dimension to stories. Most of Baylen’s projects are homegrown – important issues affecting the community in which she lives. With purposeful imagery and empathy, she makes the most difficult subjects visual while maintaining the dignity of the people she photographs. Although typically focused on domestic work, her assignments have taken her abroad to countries including Lebanon, West Africa, the Caucasus, Haiti and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. A native of Ohio, Baylen graduated from Ohio University’s School of Visual Communications in 2001 and began her career at the Washington Times. During her five years there she concentrated on in-depth photo essays, specializing in covering psychological trauma. In the process, she became a leading chronicler of mental health issues. In 2005, she left Washington to pursue a freelance career in New York. Baylen’s work has appeared in the New York Times, Financial Times and numerous European magazines. Baylen was a Pulitzer finalist in 2009 for her contribution to the Los Angeles Times / ProPublica series “When Caregivers Harm,†a piece exposing gaps in California’s oversight of dangerous and incompetent nurses, which blended investigative scrutiny and multimedia storytelling to produce corrective changes. And she was also a Pulitzer finalist for her contribution to the Washington Times’ staff coverage of the D.C. sniper in 2002. Her work has been honored by the National Press Photographers Assn., Pictures of the Year International and the White House News Photographers Assn.