Anna Boyiazis

Anna Boyiazis

Swimming instructor Chema (17) snaps her fingers as she disappears underwater, in Nungwi, Zanzibar, on 28 December 2016.

The Zanzibar Archipelago is spiritually and economically connected to the ocean, yet half its people cannot go in the water for fear of drowning. While many boys learn basic swimming skills by age 10, girls have been discouraged from learning to swim because of the absence of modest swimwear. Swim lessons also challenge a patriarchal system that discourages women from pursuing things other than domestic tasks. Now, thanks to grassroots organizations that provide full-length swimsuits and swim lessons, women and girls are getting into the water. Students are empowered to teach others, creating a cycle that opens the ocean to all.

Anna Boyiazis is an American documentary photographer based between Southern California and East Africa. Committed to healing and liberation, her areas of focus include conservation, human rights, public health, and women and girls’ issues. Through her work, she aims to elicit compassion and bring our shared humanity to the fore.

Boyiazis is a contributing photographer for National Geographic, The New York Times Magazine, and GEO Magazine. She has received first aid training for combat and wilderness wounds through Reporters Instructed in Saving Colleagues (RISC) and VICE Hostile Environment and Emergency First Aid Training (HEFAT).

Boyiazis has been a guest speaker at the Austrian Parliament (Vienna), Festival für zeitgenössische Kunst (Basel), the Fowler Museum at UCLA (Los Angeles), United Nations of Photography (Oxford), and for World Press Photo (Amsterdam, Montréal, Vienna).

She holds an MFA from the Yale School of Art and a BA from the UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture.