William Gagan

William Gagan (born April 5, 1981) is an American photojournalist from San Francisco, CA. He attended Redwood High School (Larkspur, California) and graduated in 1999. He then went on to pursue a bachelor's degree in Communications at Dominican University of California which he received in 2003. In September 2011 he joined the Occupy Wall Street movement as a live streamer and journalist embedded within the movement. He made his entrance into the public spotlight when he snuck into Syria over the border of Turkey on a fact-finding mission in early 2012. Despite his success crossing into Syria and traveling with the Free Syrian Army he received much criticism and praise alike for his mission. Gagan primarily reports using social media and technology, but has since moved to photography and videography working for organizations such as Sea Shepherd Conservation Society in 2012–13 as a member of Operation Zero Tolerance, filming the TV show Whale Wars for Animal Planet. He also worked as a videographer in North Africa with H.A.R.P., better known as the Humanitarian Aid & Rescue Project in 2012. While in South Sudan specifically he worked for H.A.R.P. and also as a consultant with Minetech International who are contracted by the United Nations as a Mine clearance agency there. In 2014 he travelled to Southeast Asia where he worked as a freelance photographer on the island of Koh Tao.