Sandra Eisert

Sandra Eisert (born January 1, 1952) is an American photojournalist, now an art director and picture editor.

Later she was named Picture Editor of the Year by the National Press Photographers Association in its annual competition.

[2] Writing about Eisert's contributions in his 2002 book, Get the Picture: A Personal History of Photojournalism, picture editor John G. Morris noted: She and Kennerly [photographer David Hume Kennerly] broke new ground in candid presidential coverage, even releasing pictures of the president's jovial celebration with Henry Kissinger in the Oval Office when "only" fifteen U.S. marines (plus twenty-six others) died in the 1975 rescue of forty seamen aboard the merchant ship Mayaguez after its seizure by Cambodian Communists in the Gulf of Siam.

[3] In 1986, Eisert worked with a seventeen-member team of photography editors to edit Day in the Life of America, a photo project by American photographer Rick Smolan.

[12] The 1986 Smolan project worked towards coordinating more than 200 photographers from 33 nations as part of one of the first attempts to catch the spirit of the United States in a single day on film.

[14] That same year, Eisert received the Atrium Award for Graphic Design while working at the San Jose Mercury News.

The staff won the Pulitzer Prize for General News Reporting next year, citing "detailed coverage of the October 17, 1989, Bay Area earthquake and its aftermath.

[3] On her hiring, San Francisco Examiner executive editor Phil Bronstein noted, Sandra has a reputation nationwide as a visual artist of tremendous vision and ability.

[3] Eisert was part of a team of twelve Mercury News photo editors that received the 1993 Pictures of the Year competition's Overall Excellence in Editing award.

[25] That same year, Eisert photo-edited Material World: A Global Family Portrait,[5] a photo essay by American freelance photojournalist Peter Menzel.

[27] In reply to a 1998 written request from the University of Oregon visual communication and photojournalism professor Julianne H. Newton to give her thoughts on the role of a photo editor, Eisert replied: Photographers meet more real people than anyone at the newspaper, but they don't decide what runs.

White House photo editor Sandra Eisert in formal wear with her guest, Richard Clarkson, in the White House Blue Room following a December 6, 1976 State Dinner for Giulio Andreotti , Prime Minister of Italy