Brien Aho, a proud father of two lovely daughters Sophia and Bailey, is a native of St. Paul, Minn. He is a ten-year veteran of the “Black Team” at the Eddie Adams Workshop and was a student on the 2003 purple team. Aho joined the Navy in 1991 and has had the pleasure of photographing in 38 countries. An instructor at the Defense Information School from 1996 through 2001, he helped to mold the future of military photographers.
After graduating from the 2002 Advanced Military Photojournalism program held at The Newhouse School of Communications, Syracuse University, he started working as a combat photojournalist at Combat Camera, Atlantic where he completed tours in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay Cuba. He is a four-time first place winner at the Military Photographer of the Year competition in different categories and he recently won the prestigious Communicator Award for “The Road to Recovery” a photo documentary about burn patients recovery.
President of the D.C. chapter of the National Association of Naval Photography, Aho produces their annual three-day photography workshop “The D.C. Shoot Off," an open event that invites all DOD and military photographers. Aho has been published in numerous magazines and newspapers such as National Geographic, Time, Newsweek, GQ, The Washington Post and the New York Times. His work appears in many books pertaining to the war in Iraq like the critically acclaimed "This Is Our War” a photo documentary the Iraq war by military photographers. Aho is currently working at the Defense Media Agency as the Director of Multimedia. This is his 5th Syracuse Fall Workshop.