In 2011, David Guttenfelder made history when he helped the Associated Press open a bureau in North Korea - the first-ever Western news agency in the politically isolated country. For the first time in North Korean history, images of daily life there were sent to the world, while Guttenfelder himself acted as an unofficial ambassador. In 2016, he broke through another wall when he boarded the first cruise ship in decades to travel from the United States to Cuba, and returned to the island to cover Fidel Castro’s four- day funeral procession. His talent for crossing long-closed borders has led to some of National Geographic’s most revealing geopolitical photo essays, as well as connecting people around the world through social media platforms like Instagram.