Quetzal Maucci
Lens-based Artist & Educator
Based in London, UK
Open for commissions, teaching, exhibitions, and collaborations.
Lens-based Artist & Educator
Based in London, UK
Open for commissions, teaching, exhibitions, and collaborations.
Email: quetzalmaucci [at] gmail.com
Also available on Women Photograph, Blink, and Instagram
Recent Events
Filter Photo
Context Exhibition
April 2026
Chicago, USA
PhotoVogue Festival
Women By Women Shortlist Exhibition
March 2026
Milan, Italy
World Press Photo x Pride Photo
Queer Havens Exhibition
12 July - 10 August 2025
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Barbican Workshop
Poetry & Photography with Taylor Beidler
6 June 2025
Barbican Centre, London
Quetzal Maucci is a lens-based artist and educator. She is originally from San Francisco, raised by South American parents, and now based in London, UK. She is part of Women Photograph and is a Lecturer of Photography at Kingston University. Her recent personal work, By The Time She Grows Up, exploring her experience of growing up in a queer family, interweaving her mothers’ migration journey to the U.S. with the complex political climate of the 1990s, was published in Time Magazine. This work was recently showcased in the Queer Havens exhibition by World Press Photo and Pride Photo in the Netherlands, and was also part of a traveling public exhibition across the country organized by Pride Photo in 2024.
This year, she was shortlisted for the Women by Women Photo Vogue Award, co-facilitated a Barbican workshop on poetry, photography, and the relationship between text and image alongside poet and writer Taylor Beidler, and spoke at the Welcome Table event, facilitated by Becky Warnock, as part of Peckham 24.
Quetzal’s practice weaves together documentary approaches and personal narrative, often using both image and text to question dominant ideas around migration, identity, and belonging. Currently, she is facilitating and building her Queer Family Archive project, a collaborative initiative that invites queer families worldwide to contribute photographs, interviews, and reflections. The archive challenges traditional family representations by centering lived experiences and fostering community care through shared authorship.
In 2014, she earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts with Honors in Photography and Imaging from New York University. In 2021, she graduated with Distinction from a Master’s degree in Photojournalism and Documentary Photography at UAL. Since 2018, she has been a member of Women Photograph.
In recent years, she has received two Research Support Grants and an Early Career Researcher Grant from Kingston University, been nominated for the Star Photobook Award, and was shortlisted for both the Jerwood/Photoworks Award and the Images Vevey Book Award. She has worked with clients including The New York Times, The Financial Times, Der Spiegel, Die Zeit, Greenpeace, Amnesty International, and NRC Handelsblad. Her work has also been recognized as a finalist by Open Walls (British Journal of Photography), the Hellerau Portraiture Exhibition, Source Magazine, and Photo Fringe.
Education
2021 | Master of Arts (Distinction) in Documentary Photography, London College of Communication, University of the Arts London, UK
2014 | Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) in Photography and Imaging, Tisch School of the Arts, New York University, New York, USA.
Awards/Grants
2025 | Shortlisted for Photo Vogue Women By Women Award
2025 | Research Support Grant from Kingston University
2024 | Pride Photo Award Finalist
2024 | Early Career Researcher Grant from Kingston University
2024 'Highly Commended' Shortlist Finalist for the Belfast Photo Festival
2023 | Research Support Fund Recipient from Kingston University
Mentors
2023-2024 | Photographer Alice Zoo
2023 | Artist Sim Chi Yin (awarded as part of Four Corners Residency programme)
2023 | Artist Kurt Tong (awarded as part of Four Corners Residency programme)
2021 | Photographer Alys Tomlinson (awarded as part of Women in Photography Mentorship developed by Hannah Watson and Haley Morris-Cafiero)
2020 | Professor & Artist Steve Macleod (awarded as part of Metro Imaging Mentorship Award)
2026 | Women by Women: The Shortlist exhibition with PhotoVogue Festival, Milan, Italy
2026 | Context 2026 juried by Sara Ickow for Filter Photo exhibition in Chicago, United States
2025 | World Press Photo x Pride Photo Exhibition in various locations around Netherlands
2024 | Pride Photo Exhibition in various locations around Netherlands
2022 | PhotoLux Festival in Lucca, Italy and L’Artiere Pop-Up Bookshop | Rencontres d'Arles Photography Festival in Arles, FR
2022 | Made in Arts London at the Affordable Art Fair in London, UK
2022 | Hellerau Portraiture Exhibition at Technische Sammlungen Museum in Dresden, GER
Talks & Workshops
2025 | Poetry, Photography, and the Role of the “Reliable” Narrator with Taylor Beidler for Barbican Young Poets Showcase
2025 | 2-Day “Playing with Color” Photography Workshop for The Photographer’s Gallery
2025 | Welcome Table Event with Becky Warnock and Sabine Hess on Collaboration at Peckham 24
2025 | Guest Lecture for LCC MA Departments with Facilitator Becky Warnock
2025 | By The Time She Grows Up Artist Talk at The Grey Space in Den Haag and at MAQAM in Amsterdam, NL, during Pride Photo Exhibition
2024 | By The Time She Grows Up Artist Talk at Framer Framed in Amsterdam, NL, during Pride Photo Exhibition
2024 | By The Time She Grows Up Artist Talk at Fotodok in Utrecht, NL, during Pride Photo Exhibition
2026 | Featured in Who Represents Queerness? Article by Francesca Hummler for Der Greif
2026 | Portrait of Carol Shanahan for Financial Times
2026 | Portrait of Sarah Maxwell for Der Spiegel
2024 | By The Time She Grows Up in Time Magazine
2024 | Piccoli Baci in Fraction Magazine
2023 | Portrait of Oluseye Owolabi for Financial Times
2023 | Portrait of Friederike Otto for Der Spiegel
2023 | Lomography Magazine Collaboration and Interview
2023 | Amnesty International Portraits
2022 | Portrait of Youssef Hanna for Financial Times
2022 | Portrait of Catherine Belton for NRC Handelsblad
2021 | Portrait for Die Zeit
2021 | Portrait shortlisted for Portrait of Humanity Award
Achievements/Residencies/Memberships
2023 | Finalist for Fathom Residency at Four Corners Gallery in London, UK
2022 | Lecturer of Photography at Kingston University in London, UK
2022 | Accepted into London Creative Network at Four Corners Gallery in London, UK
2018 | Joined Women Photograph Collective
Takeovers
2025 | FotoFemme United Feature on Instagram
2024 | Women Photograph Instagram Takeover
2022 | The Journal Collective Group Instagram Takeover
2021 | Magenta Foundation Instagram Takeover
All Content Copyright © 2026 Quetzal Maucci