María José is a photographer, picture editor and visual ethics researcher with more than a decade of experience in visual journalism, including work for The Telegraph and The Times. Her current research focuses on AI-generated imagery and the representation of climate, nature and animals in journalism.

Her work centres on image selection and verification, rights and licensing, and the operational systems that shape visual journalism. Her research examines how AI-generated and AI-assisted images of nature, animals and landscapes interact with existing visual conventions in environmental journalism.

At the Reuters Institute, she will explore what these images make visible or erase, how they frame agency, responsibility and “wildness”, and how editorial teams can assess them in practice.

María José holds an MA in Photojournalism and Documentary Photography with Distinction from the London College of Communication. Her academic background also includes a year of practice-based doctoral research at the University of Brighton, focused on rewilding and feminist visual methodologies. She has completed further fellowships and programmes in AI ethics, AI and animals, and AGI strategy.