Lua Ribeira (born 1986) is a Galician photographer, based in Bristol in the UK. She is a Nominee member of
Magnum Photos and was a joint winner of the Jerwood/Photoworks Award in 2017. Her series Noises is about femininity and British dancehall culture. She studied documentary photography at the University of Wales, Newport, graduating in 2016.
Ribeira's series
Noises, about femininity and Jamaican dancehall culture in the UK, was published as
Noises in the Blood in 2017.
Source: Wikipedia
Lua Ribeira’s practice is characterized by its collaborative nature, extensive research and an immersive approach to her subject matter. She is interested in using the photographic medium as a means to create encounters that establish relationships and question structural separations between people.
Ribeira was born in 1986, in Galicia, northern Spain. She graduated in Graphic Design at BAU School of Design, Barcelona in 2011, and earned a first-class honours in a BA in Documentary Photography from the University of South Wales in 2016. Since graduating, she has continued her academic engagement as a guest lecturer at various universities, including the University of Westminster, University of the West of England, and Complutense University of Madrid.
Ribeira’s work has received several awards and honors, including the Firecracker Grant for Women in Photography, and the Jerwood/Photoworks award. Her work has been published in book form by
Fishbar, London in 2017, features in the publication
Firecrackers: Female Photographer Now published by Thames and Hudson in 2017, in and Raw View Magazine‘s,
“Women looking at Women” in 2016. Her work has been exhibited internationally in both solo and group shows in venues including Impressions Gallery, Bradford, Ffotogallery Cardiff, Belfast Exposed gallery, Beijing International Photography Biennale, and many more.
Other publications Ribeira’s work has been featured in include
The British Journal of Photography, Paper Journal, Refinery 21, AnOther, and Tate magazine. Selected commercial clients include Chanel, Carla Lopez handbags, Birmingham Botanical Gardens, and Wire Magazine.
She joined Magnum photos as a nominee in 2018.
Source: Magnum Photos
Since graduating from the documentary photography course at the University of South Wales last year, Lua Ribeira has gone from strength to strength. In addition to the Firecracker Grant, which she was awarded in 2015 while still a student, her work was recently selected by
Susan Meiselas to appear in Raw View magazine’s
Women Looking at Women issue, which the Magnum photographer guest edited.
She is also making a name for herself commercially, with commissions for the likes of handbag designer Carla Lopez and with editorial clients such as
Wired. Her images have been shown at international festivals, including Photo España in 2014 and Gazebook Festival in 2015, and she has also been awarded a Jerwood Photoworks Grant for future projects in 2018.
Thus far, Ribeira is perhaps best known for
Noises in the Blood, an ongoing investigation into Jamaican dancehall culture, shown at London’s Fishbar Gallery earlier this year and published by its photobook wing. The series stems from the photographer’s love of the musical genre but also acknowledges her discomfort with its explicit, sexual lyrics.
“That feeling bothered me,” says Ribeira.
“I did not fully understand it.”Source: British Journal of Photography
