User:Matilde Simas

Matilde Simas is an American documentary photographer who explores the capacity of photography to generate social change, activate affect, and empower storytelling. Her work focuses on issues of dignity and human rights around the world, illuminating the enduring strength of victims, survivors, people affected by trauma, and the state of endangered ecosystems. In her work, the body and the landscape become subjects of elaborate narratives, but she actively seeks to allow her subjects agency – a way to impact the story and reclaim truth.

Simas’ work on human trafficking has been widely exhibited as part the UNODC - United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) campaigns during "World Day against Trafficking in Persons.”

In 2017 Matilde founded Capture Humanity, an artistic collaborative organization, in which she is lead photographer and director. The aim is to document humanitarian groups that assist women, children, marginalized communities, and conservation efforts. Patience, commitment, and integrity are the core of their effort to inspire greater creative and social consciousness.

October 16, 2018 (Los Angeles, CA) - The International Photography Awards (IPA) announced Simas the 2018 1st place award in the Event/ Social Cause category + Honorable Mention for Culture and Traditions categories: "Growing up Female in Maasai Society" and “A Centuries Old Maasai Custom: Female Genital Mutilation.

Matilde received a BA in Liberal Arts and Science from Suffolk University. Simas, 45, grew up in New Bedford, MA, the daughter of two Portuguese immigrants from the Azores, Portugal. She is married and has two young children.