Aïda Muluneh

Canon Ambassador and Ethiopian photographer Aïda Muluneh is the founder and director of Addis Foto Fest, East Africa's first international photography festival, and is also a celebrated artist with permanent collections held at the National Museum of African Art at the Smithsonian and the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA).

Born in Ethiopia in 1974, Aïda left the country at a young age. She spent her childhood in Yemen and Cyprus and settled in Canada in 1985 where she first began experimenting with photography at high school. After graduating from Washington DC's Howard University in 2000, with a major in film, Aïda became a photojournalist at The Washington Post. Over the next few years, she invested her spare time working on personal projects and exploring different genres of photography. In 2004, a selection of her work was acquired by the permanent collection of the Smithsonian Institute's National Museum of African Art. "I found a new visual language that gave me the freedom to delve into various topics that I couldn't express through photojournalism," she says.

In 2007, Aïda's new-found creativity resulted in her first trophy: the European Union Prize at the African Photography Encounters biennial, in Bamako, Mali. "The work that I do is a visual diary of my experiences and thoughts over the years, hence I chose portraits because it is a journey exploring various topics through each model," she says. "I want to share humanistic stories, to find things that create communality as opposed to differences, and to share a perspective that questions our own humility regardless of our backgrounds." More success followed in 2010, when Aïda was crowned winner of CRAF's International Award of Photography in Spilimbergo, Italy.

Later that year, Aïda released the book Ethiopia: Past/Forward, and launched Addis Foto Fest, the first international photography festival in East Africa, held every two years in the city of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. "I am so proud of the festival," she says. "I have been teaching photography since 2008, but I realised that it wasn't just about teaching photographers but also teaching my community, through the festival, on the application and perspectives of photography. Over the years, I have begun to understand that if we are to shift how the world sees Africa, we need to develop new African talent through education."

As well as the Smithsonian, Aïda, who has now moved back to Ethiopia, has seen her work selected for New York's MoMA, exhibited worldwide, featured in heavyweight editorial publications including The New York Times and Elle magazine, and on TV networks such as the BBC.

In 2019, Aïda became the first black woman to co-curate the Nobel Peace Prize Exhibition, and in 2020 she created 10 pieces for the exhibition herself. The 2020 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to the World Food Program, and Aïda's images served to display how hunger has been used as a weapon of war throughout history.

What is your go-to technique?

"I often shoot f/11, 1/125 sec and ISO100. I mostly use flat lighting to emphasise the graphical element of the piece, and remove all shadows unless they're intentional. I have used both studio and natural light, but the key element is to maintain these settings in order to flatten the image."


How does being an artist help you as a photographer?

"I was a photographer first and have been utilising the tool of photography as a form of self-expression. A great deal of my inspirations are based on my various photojournalism assignments, so one inspires the other."


What are you trying to create with your fine art work?

"Images that, regardless of class, geographical location or education, can be understood or, at a minimum, provoke a question. I am not a photographer who likes to over-theorise my process or my work; if I cannot create a connecting point with my audience then my purpose is pointless."


How do you direct your subjects?

"In all my images, I keep a uniform visual language. I often work with the same models, but for directing it is about building a relationship with the sitter and therefore the process changes as I adjust to them."


Where would you like photography to take you next?

"As a film graduate from Howard University, my ultimate goal is to return to my filmmaking roots. In each phase of my career, the key objective is to experiment with images, whether still or moving."

Aïda Muluneh