Ania Moussawel Wins Prestigious Oscar Cintas Photography Fellowship

Last week, Cuban-Lebanese American artist and educator Ania Moussawel was awarded the highly prestigious Photography Fellowship from the Oscar Cintas Foundation. The fellowship, which comes with a $25,000 stipend, will support Moussawel in realizing a proposed project that continues her exploration of memory, family, and the intimate textures of everyday life.

Moussawel was among five creators of Cuban heritage recognized by the foundation this year, alongside recipients in Architecture & Design, Creative Writing, Music Composition, and Visual Arts. The Cintas Fellowship is widely regarded as one of the most significant honors for Cuban artists working abroad, highlighting both excellence and the impact of cultural heritage in contemporary creative practice.

Based in Miami, Moussawel works primarily in photography and video, focusing on themes of portraiture, ritual, and personal histories. Her work examines the intersections of family, memory, and loss, often through quiet, meticulous observations of the everyday.

She holds a BFA in Photography from Barry University and an MFA in Photo, Video, and Related Media from the School of Visual Arts, New York. Her photographs and video works have been exhibited at institutions including the Art Museum of the Americas and the Griffin Museum of Photography, and are included in the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs collection.

This fellowship not only recognizes Moussawel’s artistic achievements to date but also provides a platform for the next stage of her practice, supporting the creation of work that continues to explore memory, identity, and the intimate narratives of human life.

Four Generaations © Ania Moussawel

The Days Are Long © Ania Moussawel

I Will Always Be Your Mother © Ania Moussawel

About the Oscar Cintas Foundation
The Oscar Cintas Foundation has awarded over 350 fellowships and grants, supporting Cuban artists in achieving international acclaim. This commitment has made the foundation the oldest entity in the United States dedicated to fostering the creative endeavors of artists of Cuban lineage.

The distinguished roster of past fellows is a testament to the immense talent and creativity of the Cuban community. Notable recipients include Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Oscar Hijuelos, playwright María Irene Fornés, artists Carmen Herrera, Felix González-Torres, and Teresita Fernández, as well as Kennedy Center honoree composer Tania León, and architect Andrés Martín Duany, among others.

Great Grandmothers © Ania Moussawel

About Oscar B. Cinta
Oscar B. Cintas (1887–1957) was a distinguished Cuban industrialist, diplomat, and renowned patron of the arts. As Cuba’s ambassador to the United States from 1932 to 1934, Mr. Cintas left an indelible mark on both the artistic and cultural landscapes.
His personal art collection, assembled with the guidance of Alfred H. Barr Jr., included masterpieces by Old Masters, modern paintings, and significant historical manuscripts. Among his remarkable acquisitions were a first edition of Miguel de Cervantes’ Don Quijote and the Bliss copy of Abraham Lincoln’s 1863 Gettysburg Address, now part of the White House collection.
Before his passing, Mr. Cintas entrusted his estate to a foundation aimed at nurturing Cuban artists, which later became the Oscar Cintas Foundation in his honor.

My Only Daughter © Ania Moussawel

Motherhood © Ania Moussawel

Moussawel’s selection continues a long tradition of recognizing and fostering Cuban artistic talent on an international stage, reinforcing the foundation’s mission of cultural preservation, creative excellence, and global visibility for Cuban artists.

Anastasia Samoylova: Atlantic Coast

By Anastasia Samoylova

Publisher : Aperture and the Norton Museum of Art

2025 | 144 pages

Anastasia Samoylova: Atlantic Coast opens a vast, quietly unsettling portrait of the American East Coast — one in which nostalgia, dislocation and transformation are sewn into the landscape itself. In this new monograph, Samoylova retraces the route pioneered by Berenice Abbott in 1954, journeying from Florida to Maine to revisit the places Abbott once documented, and to observe what has become of them decades later. Her images — in vivid color and stark black and white — reveal the tension between myth and reality, between promises of progress and the traces of decay or displacement.

Where once small towns and coastal communities had a certain stillness, Samoylova finds change carved into facades and roadside signs, into suburban sprawl and shuttered shopfronts. She frames these scenes with a photographer’s patience and a poet’s sensitivity — capturing abandoned diners, empty motels, decaying houses, ghostly intersections. At the same time, there is stubborn life: occasional portraits of people, wildlife, reminders that behind every sign of decline, someone, something endures.

Her book does not simply document physical places. It traces the shifting contours of identity, belonging and memory in a nation where the open road has long symbolized freedom — and where that ideal has become tangled with consumerism, environmental degradation, and socio-economic upheaval. Through Atlantic Coast, Samoylova asks whether the “American Dream” remains intact, or if it has fractured along with the towns her car passes through.

Reading this volume is to experience a slow, attentive journey — as a witness, as a traveller, as someone invited to reconsider what America has become. Her photographs linger, subtly unsettling the viewer’s assumptions about beauty, progress and decline. In its silence and restraint, the book whispers that memory, identity and place are fragile — and that every road carries stories worth listening to.

Coreen Simpson: A Monograph

By Coreen Simpson

Publisher : Aperture

2025 | 224 pages

Coreen Simpson: A Monograph is the first major book dedicated to the influential photographer and jewelry designer whose career spans more than fifty years. As the second volume in the Vision & Justice Book Series—a groundbreaking initiative created by Dr. Sarah Lewis and coedited with Drs. Leigh Raiford and Deborah Willis—the monograph celebrates Simpson’s enduring impact on visual culture.

Simpson began her career as a journalist before turning to photography, capturing the richness of Black life, fashion, and identity. Her portraits of icons such as Grace Jones, Muhammad Ali, and Toni Morrison, as well as her iconic B-Boys series from the 1980s, showcase her eye for style, pride, and self-expression. The book also features her later work with collage and overpainting, alongside the story of her celebrated jewelry line, including the iconic Black Cameo worn by Rosa Parks and Rihanna.

Featuring original essays by leading voices such as Bridget R. Cooks, Rujeko Hockley, Awol Erizku, and Doreen St. Félix, as well as an in-depth interview by Deborah Willis, Coreen Simpson: A Monograph offers a multifaceted portrait of an artist whose work continues to shape the worlds of photography, fashion, and Black cultural history.

Daido Moriyama: Quartet

By Daido Moriyama

Publisher : Getty Publications

2025 | 440 pages

Explore the groundbreaking early work of Daido Moriyama, one of Japan’s most radical photographers, with this collectible, slipcased photobook.

Daido Moriyama (b. 1938) is one of Japan’s most renowned and prolific photographers. His diverse projects often focus on urban landscapes, exploring light and shadow, and form and abstraction. Using a handheld camera and high-contrast black-and-white film, Moriyama captures Tokyo’s chaotic streets and clandestine underbelly, revealing the darkness and strangeness beneath the surface.

Daido Moriyama: Quartet is a vital anthology of the four seminal photobooks that form the foundation of Moriyama’s career as a photographer: Japan: A Photo Theater, A Hunter, Farewell Photography, and Light and Shadow. Spanning the fifteen years during which he honed his techniques and unveiled his distinctive vision, these photobooks were originally released as limited editions in Japan and represent some of the most daring ventures in photographic publishing history. Edited by Mark Holborn, this compilation includes excerpts from Moriyama’s diaries, journals, and memoranda, offering intimate glimpses into the core of his creative process. Presented in a slipcase, this volume is essential for all Moriyama fans and anyone passionate about photography and visual culture.

All About Daido Moriyama

Critical Photojournalism: Contemporary Ethics and Practices

By Tara Pixley, Judy Walgren

Publisher : ‎ Routledge

2025 | 226 pages

An essential introduction to the complexities of visual representation, this book offers a critical new framework for understanding and practicing photojournalism in a global digital context.

Critical Photojournalism guides readers through a variety of ethical, technical and business skills, plus the mental health, self-care and safety considerations necessary to thrive in the field. Drawing on their extensive industry and teaching experience, the authors provide real-world advice on how to navigate the demands of the profession while addressing the impact that photojournalism has on society and ways that photojournalists can mitigate harm. Consideration is given to understanding and disrupting implicit bias and power structures in newsrooms, as well as issues around access, working in breaking news environments and balancing informed consent with varying media laws around the world. In accessible language, this book highlights the importance of collaboration and community engagement in contemporary photojournalism and encourages students to adopt a decolonial approach to their work. Readers will learn to balance the needs for accuracy and thoughtfulness with the priorities of a global, social-media-engaged audience.

This is a key textbook for those seeking a nuanced introduction to visual journalism and/or a fresh approach to their craft. This book is supported by a website which can be accessed at www.criticalphotojournalism.com. The website includes a full-length bonus chapter on video and photojournalism, interviews with professional visual journalists, further tips and tools, and a glossary of key terms.

Ania Moussawel Wins Prestigious Oscar Cintas Photography Fellowship

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