Simona Bonanno is a visual artist (and dreamer) that works with photography, painting and drawing. Art addicted, she loves to discovery, research and create.
She was born in Messina, Sicily (Southern Italy), to a family involved in the arts. After obtaining the artistic High School degree she studied in Paris, at the ESAG Penninghen, school of art direction and interior architecture. Bonanno graduated at the Academy of Fine Arts in Italy, where she started photographing with film. She was awarded with scholarship by the European Union, while preparing her dissertation, at the Paris 8 University Vincennes-Saint-Denis, UFR Plastic Arts.
In 2013 she had her first solo exhibition in Switzerland. Her artworks have been shown in numerous exhibitions, in Italy and abroad, e.g. USA, Switzerland, France, Germany, Spain , Canada, Argentina, China, Georgia, Great Britain, United Arab Emirates, Japan, Turkey, Israel, Russia, Australia, Denmark. A limited edition signed print has been auctioned at Snap! Toronto (2014); two others have been acquired in the permanent photography collection of the Bibliothèque National de France. She won several awards, including Lens Culture Street Photo Awards (2022), International Women in Photo Association Award (2022), All About Photo Award (2016), Grand Prix de Découverte (2013), Julia Margaret Cameron Award (2011).
Her photographs have been featured in networks and magazines worldwide, such as CNN, RTS UN, Resource Magazine, Amateur Photographer, Fotografia Reflex, National Geographic, Digital Camera Magazine.
Bonanno lives and works in Sicily.