Freelance photojournalist Kael Alford (pictured at right) is one of 28 journalists from the United States and abroad named to the 71st class of Nieman Fellows, Harvard's Nieman Foundation for Journalism has announced. Atlanta-based Alford was the sole photojournalist selected for the Nieman Fellows Class of 2008-09, which also includes print reporters and editors, online journalists, columnists and editorial writers, broadcasters, and a filmmaker. The fellowships are awarded to working journalists of accomplishment and promise who come to Harvard for a year of study and seminars.

One of the few independent photographers in Baghdad during the U.S. bombing in 2003, Alford documented the impact of the war and its aftermath (see some of her photos here). Her work from the conflicts in Kosovo and Macedonia was recognized in the Pictures of the Year competition in 2001 and 2002. Alford plans to spend her year in Cambridge studying "how dominant narratives relating to U.S. foreign policy are reinforced through mass media," according to the Nieman Foundation. She will also research models for multimedia approaches to independent reporting.