Following completion of her master 's degree , Dufka worked as a humanitarian volunteer and social worker in Latin America . She volunteered with Nicaraguan refugees during the country 's revolution , and with victims of the 1985 Mexico City earthquake . She then moved to El Salvador as a social worker with the Lutheran church . While in El Salvador , Dufka became close with local photojournalists , and was asked by the director of a local human rights organization to launch a program to document human rights abuses through photography . The director of the program was killed two weeks later , reportedly by death squads . Dufka 's photos of his body ran in The New York Times , and she accepted the position
1985 Mexico City earthquake
1985 Mexico City earthquake
Corinne Dufka