Samuel Aranda was born in 1979 in Santa Coloma de Gramanet, Barcelona, Spain. When he was 19, he began working as a photojournalist for El Pais and El Periodico de Catalunya. A few years later, he traveled to the Middle East to cover the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for the Spanish agency EFE.
In 2004, he joined Agence France-Presse, covering multiple conflicts and social issues in Spain, Pakistan, Gaza, Lebanon, Iraq, Palestinian Territories, Morocco and Western Sahara.
In 2006, Aranda won the Spanish National Award of Photography from the photojournalist association ANIGP-TV for a feature about African immigrants trying to reach Europe. The images were also featured at Visa Pour L´Image and in a documentary by the BBC. Later that year, he returned to freelancing. Since then, his work has included projects on Uzbekistan's Aral Sea, social issues in India, Kosovo's independence, South Africa before the World Cup, conflict in Colombia, the dispute between Moldova and Transnistria, street kids in Bucharest and the Camorra mafia in Naples.
In 2011, Aranda began ongoing coverage of the revolutions in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Yemen. His work on this issue, thus far, has been displayed in an exhibition at the Cervantes Institute in New York and featured on the 2011 photos of the year by The New York Times.
At the moment, Aranda works as a freelancer for The New York Times and El Magazine de La Vanguardia, among others.
Aranda is currently based in Tunisia and is represented by Corbis Images.
