Bryan Denton: The Advocate

Delhi, India, is one of the most polluted cities in the world, with its poor air quality and lax waste treatment serving as a cautionary tale for other industrialized nations.

So when Bryan Denton ‘97 learned of the Timarpur-Okhla Waste to Energy plant in 2019, he wanted to investigate India’s initiative to convert thousands of tons of garbage per day into electricity. Instead of finding a model for green energy and sustainable urban development, however, he discovered more than a decade of toxic exposure, illegal dumping, regulatory failure, and health impacts devastating millions of people just trying to breathe.

Now he has received acclaim for helping bring this story to light.

In March 2025, the Overseas Press Club of America awarded Bryan and his wife Maria Abi-Habib the Whitman Bassow Award for their November 2024 New York Times piece, “Is a ‘Green’ Revolution Poisoning India’s Capital?” The award is given for the best reporting in any medium on international environmental issues. Maria wrote the words; Bryan took the photos.

“It’s always a tremendous honor to have your work recognized by the Overseas Press Club of America, but this award, for this story, was particularly special because I won it alongside my wife,” says Bryan. “We worked on this story for five years, and I’m not sure we would have pursued it as doggedly or even finished it if we hadn’t been married.”

In investigating Timarpur-Okhla’s practices, their reporting found the plant had likely “been poisoning over a million residents of the capital, both rich and poor, in full view of the government and its regulators.”

The pictures alone tell a heartbreaking story: open-air taxis in full view of exhaust stacks, families rooting through the landfills that dominate the skyline, vehicles covered in thick layers of soot and ash, and schoolchildren with face masks on protesting air quality. The full piece dives deeper, with detailed reporting on the surge of illnesses, ongoing dumping of heavy metals, and the power and influence exerted on local government by the plant’s owner, the Jindal Group.

Alternating his base of operations between Los Angeles, upstate New York, and Mexico City, Bryan has worked for years as a principled photojournalist, with clients including the Times, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, and Human Rights Watch. He has reported extensively on the Taliban and the war in Afghanistan, and won the Robert Capa Gold Medal Award from the Overseas Press Club in 2017 for his work documenting injured children in Gaza. Unsurprisingly, this award is given to those who show “exceptional courage and enterprise” in their reporting.

“I came to photojournalism as a sort of natural response to 9/11 and the US embarking on its Global War on Terror,” says Bryan. “I knew the region was going to feature centrally in the history and experience of my generation, and I wanted to immerse myself in it. The camera was my way in.”

After graduating from NYU in 2005, Bryan moved to the Middle East to begin reporting. He currently works as both an editor for the Times and as a film consultant, enjoys crafting thought-provoking journalism, and looks forward to returning to the field when able. In the meantime, he reflects fondly on his time at Sequoyah.

“It was one of the places I believe shaped me and helped imbue me with the curiosity and empathy that have fed my journalism,” he says. “I think what was great about Sequoyah is that it was very effective at providing students with different perspectives on life that most kids, at least at the time in Pasadena, might not have been exposed to.”

In a world where newspapers compete with television, TikTok, and Reddit, Bryan remains undeterred about the possibilities of long-form journalism—even though it’s harder and harder to get people to pay attention.

“History has always been a major interest of mine, and as a journalist, we get to create primary documents by tapping into our curiosity and empathy,” says Bryan. “In a world that increasingly feels reductive, shrill and oversimplified, journalism is all about nuance and context. “

“It’s a pretty cool job.”