This summer, freelance journalist Peter Menzel and award-winning editor Faith D’Aluisio launched the first exhibit based on their 2010 book, “What I Eat: Around the World in 80 Diets,” at the Museum of Science in Boston.

The exhibit, called “Around the World in 25 Diets,” focuses on...

On the cover: Peter Menzel’s photo of a Palestinian doctor casually jogging past burning oil wells was one of the more arresting images to come out of the 1991 Gulf War. Ironically, the runner, Dr. Mohammad Walid Daoud, was studying the effects of breathing oil-well fire smoke. “On particularly bad days, he told me that he wears a heavier charcoal mask,” Menzel recalls. 

Cover photo: © Peter Menzel

Staff: Most of the time, Menzel has four employees who handle the nuts and bolts of his Napa, Calif.-based operation. He also works with his wife and co-author, Faith D'Aluisio, mainly on book projects.

Favorite gear: Canon EOS 5D, featuring a 35mm-sized sensor...

A Napa Valley photojournalist points out the world's inequalities through his lens.

Photojournalist Peter Menzel is passionate about what he views as the sorry state of American life, from "red-state" politics and war to junk food-based diets.

But he doesn't just gripe about it. He's successfully published five photography-based books, including "Material World: A Global Family Portrait" and "Hungry Planet: What the World Eats," to raise awareness of these issues...