BIO
Anastasiia Nelen is a distinguished documentary photographer based in San Francisco, who is widely renowned in Russia and worldwide. She has been a photographer for 13 years and has won numerous prestigious awards, including the Best of Russia (2010) and National Geographic Russia’s “Multinational Russia” (2014). Her works have been selected for publication by media outlets such as Forbes, Elle, and Vogue. She is a member of the Russian Union of Art Photographers (since 2020) and the Russian Geographical Society (since 2019), both leading institutions in Russia dedicated to developing and preserving cultural diversity.
Anastasiia changed the landscape of Russian tourism through works about remote regions. Her project “Gold of Tuva” (2012–2019) received the national award “My Planet” (2019) for travel discoveries. The project has also won the Bearr Trust photo competition in London (2021). These works from the project were exhibited numerous times, including shows in Tuva and Moscow (2015). She also won the Ministry of Culture’s scholarship for outstanding young figures in culture and arts to work on her project on the pandemic’s influence on remote Russian villages (2021). Her work is renowned for its emotional depth and vivid storytelling, allowing viewers to connect with her subjects deeply.
Working with the Russian Geographical Society to promote the beauty of Russia and travel, Nelen also expanded her influence abroad, shooting in more than 35 countries. Her “Morocco Kingdom’s Colors” exhibition on the Moroccan lifestyle was displayed in state museums and exhibition centers around Russia for three years (2020–2023). She has mainly been focused on portraying cultural and natural diversity, capturing a breathtaking variety of national customs, colors, and characters in her travels through Asian and European countries. Her work captures stunning visuals and provokes thought on global issues and the essence of photography.
Since 2022, she has been working in Turkey on a photo project focused on the conservation of the endangered Caretta caretta turtle species. She is also collaborating with Sony on nature preservation efforts, a partnership that began in 2023.