Mayu Mohanna grew up in Chimbote, a seaport in northern Peru. At the age of 16, she moved to Lima to study communications and started her career as a photojournalist in 1990, working in different Peruvian newspapers and magazines until 2001. During this decade, she attended the World Press Photo seminar program for Latin America and the 2001 Joop Swart Masterclass. She also won first prize in Peru’s Eugenio Courret photojournalist contest in 2000 and a Ford Foundation fellowship in 2001. Since 2001, Mohanna has worked as a curator, focused on rescuing the Peruvian visual memory. Exhibitions such as Baldomero Alejos, 1924-1975; Yuyanapaq, to Remember, 1980-2000, and Look at You, 2000-2005, form a visual journey that flows through a century of Peruvian history.
Mohanna obtained a masters degree in photography and video at the School of Visual Arts, in New York City (2002-2004). In 2003, she won the Aaron Siskind Memorial Award and, in 2005, the Student Visionary Special Mention at the Tribeca Film Festival, with her first short video documentary Luzmila’s Photo.
Nowadays, Mohanna works as a freelance photographer and curator. In 2012, she curated the exhibition Subject of Law, a photo essay about social inclusion, featuring the work of fifteen photojournalists from Peru’s El Comercio newspaper. This exhibit was part of the Lima Photo Biennial.
