Tony O’Brien began his photography career in 1973. His work has appeared in LIFE, Time, Newsweek, The New York Times Magazine, and many other national and international publications. He has documented the lives of drug addicts and prostitutes on the streets of Washington, D.C. and New York, the struggle of Afghan rebels fighting the Soviet occupation of their country, and a British expedition climbing Mount Everest. Tony spent six months in the Middle East covering the Persian Gulf for LIFE, and he returned to Afghanistan in 2003 and 2007 for his children’s book, Afghan Dreams. His latest book, Light in the Desert, about contemplative life at a small Benedictine monastery was published in 2011. In 1990, he won the first Eliot Porter Foundation Grant for his work in Afghanistan.

Tony’s photography has been exhibited at the Museum of Our National Heritage in Massachusetts, Adham Center of Photography in Cairo, the Atrium Gallery at the Marion Center of Photographic Arts, and the Newseum, among others. He is the former Department Chair of the Marion Center of Photographic Arts at the Santa Fe University of Art and Design.