Born in 1981, Anaïs López (NL) is a visual artist based in Amsterdam who works with still and moving images. She graduated from the Royal Art Academy in The Hague in 2006 and did a Masters at the Art Academy St. Joost in Breda researching narrative structures and documentary strategies (2010). 

She works as an independent photographer and makes long term projects. Anaïs López is a storyteller above all else and her work reflects this. She is seen as a pioneer in her field, using multi-media on different levels. Her work has won many prizes in recent years, Her latest project ‘The Migrant’ was nominated for a Golden Calf (Dutch Film Festival) and won two other prestigious prizes: The Director Guild award for best digital storytelling and the Zilveren Camera award for best storytelling. It’s not only her multi-media work that wins awards. Her latest artist book won the award for best self-published book at Photo España and the bronze medal for best book worldwide at the Leipzig Buchemesse. She was also awarded the title of Master Storyteller by the Narrative journalism foundation. 

Her work has been exhibited worldwide in museums and at festivals. A few examples where her work was shown are Galerie Agnes B – Paris Photo (France), Grand Prix-Fotofestiwal (Poland), Landskrona (Sweden), Getxofestival (Spain), Format festival (UK), Lianzhou Photofestival (China), Photoville (New York), Migration Museum (NL), Fotodok (NL), Tropenmuseum (NL) and Stedelijk Museum (NL) . Her work was acquired by The Photography Museum in Rotterdam, Fotodok in Utrecht, Galerie Agnes B in Paris and by many private collectors. She is the recipient of the Project grant for accomplished artists by Mondriaan Fonds and the Fonds Anna Cornelis grant (2021) and was previously a recipient of the Film grant by Stimuleringsfonds–filmfonds, an artist grant by Amsterdam Fund for the Arts, and MiaP & Oog op Natuur Fellowship project grants. 

She also gives live performances of her work. In the last two years she has performed for small and big audiences, from a living room setting at Magnum in New York, to the Lampedusa boat (Galerie Vriend van Bavink) on the canals of Amsterdam or large audiences of 250 people in the Concert Hall of Brugge (Belgium) or Brakke Grond in Amsterdam. 

She is the co-founder and was the co-director the last five years of Docking Station, a photography platform based in Amsterdam that helps international photographers to move their stories forward, by connecting them to experts from different fields. She believes strongly in sharing knowledge. For this reason she regularly gives storytelling masterclasses to master and bachelor students of different art academies. She does portfolio reviews at Photofestival Arles, Unseen, Cortona on The Move, Dok Festival, Fotopub Slovenia and Belfast Photofestival.

She also believes very strongly in the synergies that collaborations bring to the table. She has worked with the best experts in different fields of storytelling, amongst them producer Prospektor, graphic designer Teun van der Heijden, exhibition designers Kummer & Herrman, and curator Monica Allende. She recently had e solo exhibition that featured prominently in The Dutch Photography Museum in Rotterdam and soon her project ‘The Migrant’ will go on a world tour, with exhibitions in Singapore (Objectifs), Jakarta (Erasmus Huis), Guernsey (Guernsey Photofestival) and Mannheim (REM). 

Right now she is working on two amazing new projects that will be released this year, so stay tuned!