Anderson was born in Canada and grew up in west Texas. In 2000, on assignment for the New York Times Magazine, he boarded a small wooden boat with 44 Haitians trying to sail to America. The boat sank in the Caribbean. The photographs received the Robert Capa Gold Medal and marked the beginning of a 10 period as a contract photographer for Newsweek Magazine and National Geographic Magazine. In 2011 he became New York Magazine’s first ever Photographer in Residence.
Anderson is the author of four monographs and lives between Brooklyn and Barcelona and is a member of Magnum Photos.