Manca has exhibited widely, among others at the Museum of Modern Art in Ljubljana and venues in New York, Brussels, Luxembourg, Tehran and Paris. Her work has appeared in major national and international publications such as The New York Times, The Times, The Guardian, Le Monde and elsewhere.
Her other monographs include “Afghanistan: Unordinary Lives”, which is the result of her long-term work in Afghanistan, documenting the consequences of the Afghanistan war through the stories of ordinary Afghans, and the most recent one “Istanbul, Faces of freedom”—an outcome of an interdisciplinary project with Oto Luthar and ZRC SAZU exploring the concept of freedom within an urban setting and the vibrant tapestry of metropolitan life, using Istanbul as its focal point.
Manca currently works on the ongoing multimedia project “The Sacrificed Valley”, exploring the effects of industrial pollution on human health and the environment, which recently received the EsoDoc 2023 Movies that Matter award.
She collaborates regularly with the The Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts (ZRC SAZU) and the socially engaged APIS Institute. She works as a mentor in photo documentary workshops, college and university photography programs.
“I’m driven by stories and the challenge of how to best visually tell them, to express their essence and emotion.”
SELECTED PUBLISHED BOOKS:
Istanbul, Faces of freedom, English edition, Založba ZRC, Slovenia, 2023
Guardians of the Spoon, English edition, Založba ZRC, Slovenia, 2016
Afghanistan: Unordinary Lives, English edition, Sanje publishing, Slovenia, 2012
SELECTED SHORT FILMS:
Ali, DOKUDOC, Slovenia, 2021
Solidarity, Not Chartity, Objectifs Centre for Photography and Film, Singapore, 2018
Solidarity, Not Chartity, Angkor Photo festival, Cambodia and the Bronx Documentary Center, New York, USA, 2017
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS:
Istanbul, Faces of freedom, Museum of Modern Art, Ljubljana, Slovenia, 2024
Guardians of the Spoon, Galerija Fotografija, Slovenia, 2017
Afghanistan, Unordinary Lives, Diefenbunker: Canada’s Cold War Museum, Canada, 2015
Afghanistan, Unordinary Lives, Gallery MC, New York, USA, 2012
Afghanistan, Unordinary Lives, Photomed festival, France,2011
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