City of San José

Imelda (Josie) Lepe

Josie Lepe’s gaze is that of a Mexican immigrant, Latina mother-based artist and a photojournalist by trade. She redefines the visual representation of what she calls the “Latines” community. Lepe focuses on visuals that portray females as a counter-image to stereotypes and reinforce positive characterization of her culture as a Mexican American. Lepe is an award-winning independent photojournalist who has been working in the industry of newspapers for the past 25 years. She worked for The Mercury News in San Jose as a photojournalist, photo lab manager, assignment editor, photo editor and multimedia producer from 1999-2018. Lepe was part of the Bay Area News Group (East Bay Times) team that won the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News for coverage of the Ghost Ship fire in Oakland, California.