About

Rita Nannini is conceptual documentary photographer who lives in Brooklyn. Rita became a photographer well before she owned a camera. While studying in Madrid, she realized that words could not capture that which her eyes saw: this led to her study of photography and a career in documentary, portrait and performance photography. Originally drawn to the medium as a vehicle to capture otherness, her personal work focuses on the vernacular.

Rita’s documentary work has been exhibited and published widely in the United States and internationally.  Seeking A Better Life: Jewish Poultry Farmers in New Jersey, her extensive and revealing study, premiered at the New Jersey State Museum, Trenton, NJ and traveled over seven years to 14 locations. 

Rita’s newest project First Stop Last Stop documents all the terminal stops of the New York City Subway system. She was awarded a New York City Artists Corp Grant in August 2021 and recently released a photobook of the same name in April 2023. To view more, click here: FirstStopLastStop.com

She has exhibited at the Brooklyn Museum, the Griffin Museum, the Los Angeles Center for Photography, Photoville, Princeton University, Beit Hatfutsot in Tel Aviv and Konica Minolta Plaza in Tokyo. Her work has appeared in many major international publications: CNN, Smithsonian, The New York Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Newsweek, Die Presse, L'Obs, Yomiuri Shimbun, Welt Am Sonntag and The Jerusalem Post.

Rita has also received grants for her photography from the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities.  She is a Professional Member of the American Society of Media Photographers, New York Chapter.