Aïda Muluneh is not just a photographer.
She is a creative entrepreneur who has built the kind of platform many African photographers never had access to.
Born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in 1974, Muluneh spent much of her childhood moving between Yemen, England, Cyprus, and Canada after leaving Ethiopia at a young age.
She later studied film at Howard University before starting her career as a photojournalist at The Washington Post. Journalism sharpened her eye for storytelling, but over time, she realized that documenting events alone was not enough to express the fuller African story she wanted to tell.
In 2007, she returned to Addis Ababa, and that decision changed the direction of her career. That same year, she won the European Union Prize at the Rencontres Africaines de la Photographie in Bamako, Mali, earning wider international recognition.
But rather than focusing only on her own rise, Muluneh began building opportunities for others.
In 2010, she founded DESTA, short for Developing and Educating Societies Through the Arts, a nonprofit dedicated to expanding arts education and supporting creative talent across Africa and the diaspora. Through DESTA, she also launched Addis Foto Fest, now one of Africa’s leading international photography festivals. The initiative gives photographers access to workshops, mentorship, portfolio reviews, international exchanges, and professional networks that are often difficult for African creatives to reach.
Muluneh has also used her influence to open doors on the global stage. In 2019, she became the first Black woman to co-curate the Nobel Peace Prize Exhibition. A year later, she received the Royal Photographic Society’s Award for Photographic Curatorship, recognizing her contribution to expanding African visual storytelling.
Her artistic signature is just as distinctive as her advocacy. Known for vivid colors, symbolic imagery, and carefully staged compositions rooted in Ethiopian culture, Muluneh creates photographs that are intentional from beginning to end. From the sketches and costumes to the lighting and composition, every detail serves the story.
Her work has been exhibited at leading institutions including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African Art, and the Public Art Fund, with installations shown across cities such as New York, Chicago, Boston, and Abidjan.
One of her notable solo exhibitions, This Bloom I Borrow, held at Efie Gallery in Dubai from January 17 to April 5, 2026, continued her exploration of identity, migration, memory, and belonging through bold colour and symbolic visual storytelling.
At the centre of Muluneh’s work is a deep belief in the power of women. Her photographs often place African women at the forefront, portraying them with dignity, strength, and agency rather than through stereotypes.
She has repeatedly shown that empowering one woman can create a ripple effect that strengthens families, communities, and future generations.
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