Elise Blanchard if a French freelance photojournalist and writer who was based in Afghanistan for seven years, focusing mainly on the impact of conflict on women and girls, as well as the Taliban and their governance.
She worked for AFP's Kabul bureau for two years, covering the Fall of the country in 2021, before returning to freelancing.
Her stories and pictures have since been published in outlets such as TIME Magazine, The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Le Monde, Die Zeit, Guardian, Figaro, and others.
She is a regular contributor to Getty Images.
Asides from Afghanistan, she has also worked in Myanmar's rebel-held areas and Ukraine.
She won a World Press Award in 2026 for a feature she shot and wrote for TIME Magazine on the impact of USAID cuts on Afghan women’s access to maternal healthcare . In 2025, a series she produced on the experience of girlhood across Afghanistan was awarded the UNICEF Photo of the Year Award.
Her book “Dans la Maison d’un Taliban” was published in France in 2026. In it, she tells the story of a taliban soldier, his wife, and their extended family, after following them for three years, alongside the stories of girls and young women trying to survive the regime change.
Elise also shot photo and video for humanitarian organisations including Doctors Without Borders, Handicap International, Action Against Hunger, the World Food Program, and others.
In the last few years, her pictures have been shown in several exhibits across the world.
She graduated with a dual degree in Journalism from Columbia University, in New York, and Sciences Po, in Paris.