Anna Boyiazis, MFA

Anna Boyiazis is an American documentary photographer based between Southern California—where she was born and raised by her family of Aegean Islanders—and East Africa. Her areas of focus include human rights, public health, and women and girls’ issues. Through her work, she aims to elicit compassion and bring our shared humanity to the fore. Her ongoing project “Finding Freedom in the Water,” featured by National Geographic (Australia, Germany, Italy, Spain, USA), is a 2019 Prix Pictet Nominee, and the recipient of a 2019 Getty Images Reportage Grant, 2018 Aaron Siskind Individual Photographer’s Fellowship, 2018 Contemporary African Photography Prize, 2018 Peace Image of the Year, 2018 Pictures of the Year International Award of Excellence, 2018 Women Photograph + Nikon Grant, 2018 World Press Photo Award, and 2017 UNICEF Photo of the Year Honorable Mention. Photographs from the project were included in the DYSTURB #WomenMatter campaign against violence toward women (Preus Museum, Norway), History In A Moment (Monroe Gallery, Paris Photo New York), and 2017 Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize Exhibition (National Portrait Gallery, London).

Anna is a contributing photographer for ESPN, GEO, Médecins Sans Frontières, National Geographic, Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Politiken, Stern, and UNICEF. She has received first aid training for combat and wilderness wounds through Reporters Instructed in Saving Colleagues (RISC) and VICE Hostile Environment and Emergency First Aid Training (HEFAT). She has been a guest speaker at the Austrian Parliament (Vienna), Festival für zeitgenössische Kunst (Basel), Fowler Museum at UCLA (Los Angeles), World Press Photo Exhibition (Montréal/Vienna), and World Press Photo Festival (Amsterdam). Anna earned an MFA from the Yale University School of Art and a BA from the UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture.