Master Series: Jodi Cobb

As a staff photographer for National Geographic, Jodi Cobb has spent more than 20 years telling stories from across the globe. Always a trailblazer, she was the first woman to win the White House News Photographer of the Year award in 1985. Her assignments have taken her to uprisings in the West Bank, into China right after it was reopened to the west, and to Saudi Arabia where she was hauled off to jail for photographing on the street. Most famously, in 1995 she became the first photographer to document the lives and rituals of Japan's geisha. The work was subsequently published by Knopf as Geisha: The Life, the Voices, the Art.

This latest Masters Series, sponsored by Nikon and PDN, will highlight 20 images from her portfolio, all of which are accompanied by audio clips. Included here is a peek at pictures from her acclaimed geisha series, a selection of images she's shot for National Geographic, and a smattering of old favorites. An edited transcript of the interview, as well as an overview of Cobb's career, is included here as well.

AUDIO CLIP: "I've always used Nikon."