Anja Matthes

Anja Matthes is an award winning Luxembourgian/German born documentary photographer, videographer and visual storyteller based in New York City. She completed her studies at and received certificates in cinematography and documentary filmmaking from New York University. Matthes’ work has been published in, Rolling Stone, W-Magazine,The Atlantic, Bombay Times, and Times of India among many others. Her work has been exhibited in 2021 on the NYC Highline, Rayko Gallery (CA), SFA CameraWorks (CA), Open Source Gallery (NY), Schomburg Center and the Museum of Arts and Design (NY) among others. 

Over the past 9 years, Matthes’ work has focused on LGBTQ youth of color. From 2012-2014, Matthes created Out-Sight-In In-Sight-Out in collaboration with June, a homeless transgender teen. Shortly after, Matthes began working with members of the Kiki scene, a community of at-risk LGBTQ youth of color. In 2016, she was a Visura Personal Projects grant finalist and received an International Women in Journalism grant. Matthes has given talks at SF CameraWorks, Open Source Gallery and spoke with a New York University class on gender and pop culture alongside one of the members of the Kiki scene.

 
In collaboration with Housing Works and Open Source Gallery, Matthes produced and distributed the Kiki Yearbook, a book project for members of the Kiki scene. The project was featured in W Magazine and is included in the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture archive. In February 2019, Matthes received an HMI Honors Award, she was deemed a legendary Icon for her work with the Kiki youth and her work is shortlisted for the Athens Photo Festival 2017 and won the Pride Photo Award in 2019. Her work with the Kiki Ballroom scene was featured in The New Yorker Instagram and in The Atlantic.