Manuello Paganelli

Manuello Paganelli was born in the Dominican Republic and grew up in Italy and Puerto Rico. He went to school in Tennessee and planned to become a doctor then his last year of college he read a magazine article about Ansel Adams who became his mentor. His first photo break came at the Chattanooga Times and after a couple of years he moved to Washington, DC. In 1989, when North American citizens were not permitted to enter the island, he began to explore and document Cuba,. In 1995 he had his first Cuba photo gallery show and that same year earned him a fellowship arts grant. On his exhibit the Washington Post wrote "Manuello Paganelli's Cuban photographs are a brilliant window on a land and people too long hidden from North American eyes, Working in the tradition of Cartier-Bresson and Robert Frank, Paganelli brings an artist's eyes and a native son's sensibility to his superb photographs." In 2016 after more than sixty trips to Cuba,his first book Cuba A Personal Journey 1989-2016 was published. In the early 1990s he started work on his Black Cowboys series and in 2009 part of his documentary was featured during the opening of the Annenberg Space for Photography in LA, CA and in 2012 it was shown in St Petersburg, Russia at the prestigious Manege Museum. In 1994 he started to document Native Americans, an ongoing project, all across the Americas. He works mainly with black and white film and his fine arts is at the Weston Gallery in Carmel, CA and Obscura Gallery in Santa Fe, NM. His art is at the permanent collection of the Manage Museum in Saint Petersburg, Russia. He resides in Carmel, CA where he spends his time with his family, their dogs or practicing martial arts. His award-winning work has graced the covers and pages of magazines such as: Forbes, GQ, LIFE, Men’s Journal, Newsweek, PEOPLE, TIME, ESPN, Sports Illustrated, Stern and Der Spiegel.