Aïda Muluneh

Contemporary photographer Aïda Muluneh is an artist reframing global perceptions of the African continent. Born in Addis Ababa in 1974, she left Ethiopia as an infant while the country was in the midst devastating civil war. She spent the next decade in England, Yemen, Greece and Cyprus before settling in Canada in 1985.

Her career aspirations swung from basketball player to lawyer before pivoting to photographer when her school art teacher reopened a disused darkroom and handed her a Pentax 35-millimetre camera. She received a BA in film, radio, and television from Howard University in 2000, and gravitated towards the work of Chester Higgins Jr., Richard Avedon and Gordon Parks.

Following her studies, she got a job at The Washington Post and began questioning the mass media’s perception of African Americans and the African continent. In 2007, she returned to Addis Ababa, where she continues to live and work as a fine artist, commercial photographer, photojournalist, educator and cultural entrepreneur.

Aïda has exhibited everywhere from South Africa to Canada, England to China. Her work is permanently in situ at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African Art and can be found on the walls of MoMA and the Hood Museum of Art.

Aida Muluneh

Aïda Muluneh

The work of Aïda Muluneh focusses on women’s experiences and to challenge the singular image of Africa as an impoverished and corrupt continent....

Aïda Muluneh

CNN Online

Photography has often been a male-dominated profession, with many female photographers not given due credit for their work. However, there are a number of female digital photographers whose work range from photojournalism to personal...

Helen Pankhurst's Heroine

Helen’s Heroine – Aïda Muluneh

FROM THE ARCHIVE Helen Pankhurst’s heroine is Aïda Muluneh – who’s yours? As the first week of Hundred Heroines comes to a close, we can reveal Helen Pankhurst’s nomination and, not surprisingly, she’s chosen a wonderful Ethiopian...

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