Aida Muluneh is a photographer and filmmaker of Ethiopian descent. She was born in Addis Ababa but grew up in Yemen, England, Cyprus and Canada before landing in the U.S. for her undergraduate studies.

The cultural entrepreneur graduated from Howard University in Washington D.C, and later worked for the Washington Post as a photographer. Muluneh is a world renowned exhibiting artist—she’s the winner of the prestigious European Union Prize in the Rencontres Africaines de la Photographie—and some of her images reside in the permanent collection at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African Art Hood Museum, and the Museum of Biblical Art in the U.S.

She notably won the CRAF International Award of Photography in Spilimbergo, Italy in 2010, and published a coffee table book—Ethiopia: Past/Forward.

Muluneh also has her own company, Developing and Educating Society Through Art or DESTA. The celebrated artist also started Ethiopia’s first photography festival, Addis Foto Fest, in 2010. It is East Africa’s premier photography fest that features exhibitions, conferences, portfolio reviews and recently, awards for emerging and established photographers.

-JO