©Ania Moussawel, Four Generations

In early November 2025, I was invited to CENTER’s Review Santa Fe. Being my first time in the Southwest and experience on the Reviewer side of the table, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. As an educator, I love reviewing work; when others hear “critique,” they may shy away, but I love the experience of helping others through their ideas. Review Santa Fe is an incredibly welcoming experience, carefully cultivating meaningful projects and conversations. Living in a very rural area, this was an inspiring opportunity to see what is on the horizon of the photo world. I’m so excited to share a few of these projects over the first week of February.

Today, we’ll be sharing Ania Moussawel’s The Days Are Long.

©Ania Moussawel, The Days are Long

Ania Moussawel is a visual artist and educator from Miami, Florida. She received a BFA in photography from Barry University in Miami Shores, FL and an MFA in Photo, Video, and Related Media from the School of Visual Arts in New York, NY.  Her work in photography and video explores notions of family, memory, and loss through portraiture, rituals, and observations of daily life. Her family’s cultures, Cuban and Lebanese, are central themes in her work, often set in the homes of her maternal and paternal grandmothers.  Moussawel’s most recent body of work, The Days are Long, investigates the complex relationship between mother and child over generations in her family.

Moussawel has exhibited her work in various group shows at venues such as the Art Museum of the Americas, Washington, DC; the Griffin Museum of Photography; Filter Photo; the Center for Fine Art Photography; and the Center for Book Arts, among others. She has had solo shows at Soho Photo Gallery, O’Cinema in partnership Oolite Arts, and Florida International University.

Moussawel was the winner of the 2024 South Florida Cultural Consortium, 2022 Soho Photo Gallery International Portfolio Competition. She was also a semifinalist in the 2022 Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition from the National Portrait Gallery, winner of the Miami Individual Artist Grant (2022-2024), and was a top 200 finalist in Photo Lucida’s Critical Mass (2022-2024).  Moussawel lives and works in Miami, FL, where she lives with her husband, two children, and dogs.

Follow Ania on Instagram: @aniamoussawel

©Ania Moussawel, Violet at Five

The Days Are Long

My work in photography and video explores notions of family, memory, and loss through portraiture, rituals, and observations of daily life.  My family’s cultures, Cuban and Lebanese, are central themes in my work, often set in the homes of my maternal and paternal grandmothers.  As a second-generation American, I observe the details of their homes, feeling like a foreigner at times, even though I have known these places for nearly my whole life. I have photographed in the home of my maternal grandparents extensively, documenting their daily lives.  It shows different generations as they grow and age, rituals and practices that have now been left behind, and the life that continues after the loss of a family member.  In making these images, I piece together a visual narrative of an immigrant family, while connecting with my own identity. 

©Ania Moussawel, I Will Always Be Your Mother

Epiphany Knedler: How did your project come about?

Ania Moussawel: While in graduate school, I began making work about my family and cultural heritage. I have continued to explore these themes since graduation.  My recent body of work, The Days are Long, began in 2020.  I was at home with my family during the COVID-19 lockdown, photographing my children in their daily moments.  I started constructing portraits of my daughter, but at the moment, I did not know it would evolve into a long-term project.  It was when I was finally able to visit my grandmother that I took a candid photo of her sitting in her living room, which I titled “The Days are Long,” that the project began to take form.

©Ania Moussawel, I am Your Mother

EK: Is there a specific image that is your favorite or particularly meaningful to this series?

AM: My favorite photo from this series is Great-Grandmother’s.  While most of the photos in this series are staged, this candid was a unique moment when everything in the frame came together, along with my daughter’s expression and pose, which she did on her own.   My son also happened to be walking by with an armful of toy trains. And all this happened in my grandmother’s living room, their great-grandmother’s.

©Ania Moussawel, Great Grandmothers

EK: Can you tell us about your artistic practice?

AM: My journey with photography began twenty-five years ago.  From the beginning, my work in photography focused on personal themes, particularly family and identity, through portraiture and capturing daily moments.  This became the focus of my graduate work and my current art practice. In addition to my art practice,  I have also been working as a photographic educator since 2006.  I have taught photography courses at several institutions, including Barry University, Florida Atlantic University, Florida International University, and, currently, Rhode Island School of Design and Miami-Dade County Public Schools.

©Ania Moussawel, Your Things

EK: What’s next for you?

AM: I will continue exploring family history, building on my previous series, The Days are Long.  For the new work, I will turn my lens toward my paternal Lebanese lineage, using photography to piece together a fragmented narrative.

©Ania Moussawel, My Only Daughter

©Ania Moussawel, Granddaughter

©Ania Moussawel, Hugs

©Ania Moussawel, Mom and I

©Ania Moussawel, Violet at Eight

©Ania Moussawel, Motherhood

©Ania Moussawel, You Are Still With Us

©Ania Moussawel, The Woman You Were

Epiphany Knedler is an interdisciplinary artist + educator exploring the ways we engage with history. She graduated from the University of South Dakota with a BFA in Studio Art and a BA in Political Science and completed her MFA in Studio Art at East Carolina University. She is based in Aberdeen, South Dakota, serving as an Assistant Professor of Art and Coordinator of the Art Department at Northern State University, a Content Editor with LENSCRATCH, and the co-founder and curator of the art collective Midwest Nice Art. Her work has been exhibited in the New York Times, the Guardian, Vermont Center for Photography, Lenscratch, Dek Unu Arts, and awarded through Lensculture, the Lucie Foundation, F-Stop Magazine, and Photolucida Critical Mass.
Follow Epiphany on Instagram: @epiphanysk