Claro Cortes IV is a photojournalist with almost 30 years of professional experience. He covered major events from anti-Marcos dictatorship, Mount Pinatubo eruption, first visit of Taiwan’s President Lee Teng-hui to China, APEC Summits, the Great Sichuan earthquake and the large-scale American war in Afghanistan.
Claro documented Vietnam’s opening up and structural transformation (1992-1995) and China’s economic development and rich cultural heritage (2002-2008).
Claro covered and edited three Olympic Games, World Cup soccer championship, Australian Open tennis grand slam events, Masters Cup, National Basketball Association games, Formula One F1 motor racing and other major sporting events.
He was the recipient of the first Reuters -Willy Vicoy Fellowship at the University of Missouri in 1987. He participated in the prestigious Missouri Photo Workshop as well as the National Press Photographers Association Flying Short Course in Denver, Colorado in the same year.
His photographs appeared in New York Times, Washington Post, Der Spiegel, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Le Figaro, The Independent, Newsweek, Time Magazine, China Daily, South China Morning Post, Straits Times, Sydney Morning Herald, Irish Times, The Telegraph, Philippine Daily Inquirer, Yomiuri Shimbun, O Globo, among others.
He has worked with UNICEF Philippines in 2019-21.
Cortes was an Editor-in-Charge at the Thomson Reuters Global Pictures Desk in Singapore from 2008 to 2015.