Meet this year’s Nobel Peace Prize Exhibition photographer

Meet Aïda Muluneh, the acclaimed artist who produced an exclusive photo series for this year’s Nobel Peace Prize Exhibition.

 

Bright primary colours, women with body paint and colourful costumes. Aïda Muluneh has made it her trademark to picture a different Africa by combining the traditional with the modernistic. She was born in Ethiopia, grew up in Yemen, moved to Canada and worked as a photo journalist in Washington Post. As an exhibiting artist, her work has been shown at MOMA in New York, Smithsonian’s in Washington and in South Africa, Mali, France, and China. In October, she was commissioned by the Nobel Peace Center to create a photo essay for the Nobel Peace Prize exhibition 2020. The Nobel Peace Prize to the World Food Programme had just been announced, and Aïda Muluneh set out to illustrate how food and hunger is being used as a strategic weapon in war and conflict. The photos have been shot in Aïda’s studio in Abidjan during a couple of busy weeks in November. 

 

“I look at my work in the same way as a film maker”, says Muluneh, who has her degree in film making. “I start with a sketch and choose the colours and the design. And then I look for that magic moment where all the pieces fit together.”

 

The ten photos in the exhibition represent ten countries and ten conflicts where hunger has been used as a weapon. 

 

“Each frame is a story, a story deeply embedded with moments, emotions, pain, loneliness, rage and the deep sadness that becomes the plight of those caught between the crossfires of political agendas”, the artist says. Her thoughts are with the mothers who witness the death of their children and the young people who see their lives and futures destroyed.

 

Aïda Muluneh’s photo essay is now shown in the digital exhibition on the Nobel Peace Center’s website and on nrk.no. The Nobel Peace Prize exhibition 2020 will be opened at the Nobel Peace Center in January 2021 if Covid-19 restrictions allow. The digital version of the exhibition is available here.   

 

For the second year running, Canon Europe is proud to support the Nobel Peace Prize Exhibition as it’s official digital print partner. Special thanks to Studio Technika for printing these vibrant photographs so beautifully on the imagePROGRAF PRO-6000.