Marie Therese De Belder is a New York based documentary photographer and painter. She received a Master's degree in Linguistics and French Literature from the University of Antwerp in Belgium and is a graduate of the Documentary Photography and Photojournalism program at the International Center of Photography in New York.
Her work deals with the need to reconnect with nature, sacred rituals and indigenous wisdom.
Her main project as a photographer and educator is situated in Papua New Guinea where she explores the evolving relationship of the Awar people with their natural surroundings.
She develops and leads teen workshops internationally in Visual Storytelling.
She is the co-founder of Words to See the World, a platform at the intersection of linguistic, environmental and cultural conservation for indigenous youth to present the way they view the world through language and photography.