Born in 1964, Paolo Pellegrin studied architecture and photography. Between 1987 and 1990, he started his first photography projects in Italy, focusing on immigration, the circus and homeless people. In 1992, he worked on topics such as the Roms in Italy and Bosnia. In 1995, he was awarded his first World Press Photo award for his work on AIDS in Uganda.
The following year, he received the Kodak Young Photographer / Visa d'Or at Visa pour l'image festival. Among other many series, in 1998, he worked on a project for Doctors Without Borders in Cambodia, which then became a book and a traveling exhibition. He won a World Press Photo award for this work. He collaborated frequently with the New York Times Magazine with over ten covers for the magazine.
In 2000, he received the Hasselblad Foundation Grant for Photography for his work in the Balkans. He has also published numerous books. Travelling extensively, mainly covering the current events in the Middle East and Africa, from the Guantanamo Bay detainees to the protagonists of areas as diverse as Afghanistan, Albania, Kuwait and the United Kingdom, Pellegrin is a tireless traveler who follows the news everywhere and who won many prestigious photography awards . In 2012, he worked, with the support of Cherry Tree Art Initiatives, a series in Congo which was then presented in Arles in 2015.