Cinzia Canneri is an Italian photojournalist whose work explores the human condition through themes of social change, gender issues, and migration. She holds a degree in Psychology and later earned a Master’s degree in Photojournalism, combining analytical insight with a visual and humanistic approach to storytelling. She has worked extensively in the Horn of Africa, documenting the lives of women from political, social, and cultural perspectives.
Cinzia is currently working in Armenia on a project focused on illegal adoptions and gender selection, investigating the impact of patriarchal culture on the control and commodification of women’s bodies.
Her project “Women’s Bodies as Battlefields” has won numerous awards including the Camille Lepage Award at Visa Pour l’Image in 2023, the Documentary Photography Zeke Award SDN in 2023, the Circle of Life Award at the International Photojournalism Festival Vilnius in 2023, and first place in the POYi Issue Reporting Stories category in 2022 and a World Press Photo award in 2025.
In addition to the international World Press Photo exhibition tour, this work has been exhibited in several festivals and exhibition venues, including the Festival of Ethical Photography in Lodi and the Molichrom Festival in Campobasso (2026); the Academy of Fine Arts in Turin, the Ducal Palace in Genoa, and the Palace of Exhibitions in Rome (2025); the Xposure International Photography Festival in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates (2025); the Photoville Festival in New York, United States (2023); and the Kawasaki Peace Museum in Kanagawa, Japan (2022).
Previously, she received an Award of Excellence in the POYi Science and Natural History Picture Story category (2016) and First Place at Umbria Fest in Italy (2019) for her project Like Two Wings.
Canneri’s work has been published in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Aftenposten, Days Japan, L’Obs, The Observer, Panorama Nyheter, Internazionale, Mind, Millennium, and L’Espresso.