Betsy Karel was born in New York City in 1946 and today lives in Washington D.C. Karel worked as an award-winning photojournalist in the 1970s. In 1998, after a hiatus of nearly 20 years working as a professional photographer, she participated in “The Way Home,” a national exhibition on homelessness in America. Her photographs are in the permanent collections of The National Gallery of Art, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and Yale University Art Gallery. Steidl has published Karel’s Bombay Jadoo (2007), which was shortlisted for the 2008 Deutscher Fotobuchpreis.