Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist from Berkeley named Cal State L.A.’s ‘Alumna of the Year’

California State University, Los Angeles announces Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist Olga Shalygin Orloff (’77)—who is also a registered nurse and documentary filmmaker—as the recipient of the University’s 2012 Alumna of the Year.

A Berkeley, CA, resident, Orloff is one of eight outstanding Cal State L.A. alumni and two students who will be recognized during the 38th annual Alumni Awards Gala Thursday, Oct. 11, at the Luckman Fine Arts Complex, on the Cal State L.A. campus.

Orloff worked as a research nurse for the Keck School of Medicine of USC Division of Nephrology after graduating from Cal State L.A. in 1977, and then joined the staff at Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center, where she continued her nursing career in the post-surgical and burns intensive care units.  The nursing career allowed Olga the financial freedom and flexibility in work hours to explore her love for photography and travel.

To better develop her photographic skills, she enrolled in photojournalism courses at Cal State Long Beach in 1982 before landing photo internships with the Los Angeles Times and Orange County Register. Over the next few years, she worked as a staff photographer at the Orange County Register, The Long Beach Press-Telegram, Los Angeles Daily News and the San Jose Mercury News.

In 1990, she was hired as staff photographer for The Associated Press San Francisco Bureau, where she was dispatched to photograph news stories throughout the world. Olga was also temporarily in charge of The AP Moscow Bureau’s photo department during this period and was responsible for coordinating photo coverage throughout the entire former Soviet Union—an area that spanned 12 time zones. She and her team of photographers were awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1992 for their coverage of the resignation of Gorbachev, the rise of Russian President Boris Yeltsin and the collapse of the Soviet Union. The Pulitzer Prize was one of many prestigious national and international photo awards she received while working as a photographer for The AP. LIFE Magazine, which influenced her love of photography decades earlier, published some of her award-winning images.

In 1993, Olga was officially appointed photo editor for The AP Moscow Bureau where she was responsible for photo coverage in Russia as well as the 14 newly-independent countries that had been part of the Soviet Union. In 1995, she returned to The AP San Francisco Bureau where she continued her work as a photo editor.

Her most recent career as a documentary filmmaker started in 1998 when she left The AP and founded RedDoorVideo.com with the help of her husband Cliff Orloff, a computer scientist, who introduced her to digital filmmaking and editing. They combined their talents, and their love of adventure travel, to produce documentary films that aired on PBS stations across the country. Their four films on Afghanistan, starting in 2002, are part of the Pentagon Library, have been used by the U.S. Department of Defense for cultural training purposes, and are included in women’s studies programs at many colleges and universities. Additionally, their film on the Yanomami Indians of the Amazon (one of the few remaining large groups of hunter-gatherers) is required viewing by anthropology departments at many universities in the U.S. and worldwide.

For info about other honorees: http://www.calstatela.edu/univ/ppa/newsrel/alumgala2012.htm.