Christopher Anderson was born in Canada in 1970 and grew up in west Texas. He first gained recognition for his pictures in 1999 when he boarded a handmade, wooden boat with Haitian refugees trying to sail to America. The boat, named the Believe In God, sank in the Caribbean. In 2000, the images from that journey received the Robert Capa Gold Medal. They also marked the emergence of an emotionally charged style that Anderson refers to as ‘experiential documentary’, and which has come to characterize his work since. He has served as a contract photographer for Newsweek and National Geographic magazine, and is the recipient of two World Press Photo Awards.

Anderson is a member of Magnum Photos and the author of two monographs: Nonfiction, published in 2003 and Capitolio, published in 2009 by RM and named one of the best photography books of 2009/10 at the Kassel Photo Book Festival in Germany.