Kari Rene Hall, a southern California native, received a B.A. from California State University, Long Beach with a Special Major in photography and radio/television and a minor in psychology.
Hall has been a Los Angeles Times photographer since 1980 and currently uses digital cameras to transmit images from a bureau in Orange County. She has traveled to Vietnam and Thailand on assignment for The Times. Hall's photographs of Cambodian refugees were part of the FORCED OUT exhibit at the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery which is currently traveling internationally. Photographs of Cambodians at Site 2 refugee camp won National Press Photographers Association's 1991 documentary project competition. Hall has judged numerous photo contests, including Arets Presse Foto annual Pictures of the Year competition in Odense, Denmark, has been on the faculty of the Missouri Photo Workshop, Atlanta Seminar, Southern Short Course, Women in Photojournalism, ASMP among others and has had a slide presentation on the NPPA Flying Short Course, and spoken at universities and photo institutions across the country.