Sahm Doherty-Sefton was the first woman photographer on the masthead of Time magazine, where she remained for more than 25 years. She lived and worked in both New York and Washington D.C., covering a wide diversity of subjects – sports, fashion, politics, the arts, and social unrest. She became Time’s White House photographer during the Carter Administration. But a wanderlust took hold and Time cooperated, basing her successively in Johannesburg, Cairo, Bonn, and London, from where she chronicled  major international events. Her assignments have included coverage of wars in Cyprus, Zimbabwe and Beirut.

She has photographed numerous world leaders, including Margaret Thatcher, Anwar Sadat, Yasir Arafat and Leonid Brezhnev. Besides Jimmy Carter, she has had before her cameras American presidents Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Reagan and (George H.W.) Bush.

In London she was the European picture editor of Time for six years. After her return to America, she produced and filmed television documentaries.

Rediscovering with her camera the geographical and cultural vastness of America has been a creative journey as exhilarating as the years overseas for Ms. Doherty-Sefton. She currently resides in St. Michaels, Maryland, where, in addition to continuing as a working photographer, she conducts photography classes at the Easton Academy Art Museum and for Chesapeake College.