“What continues to draw me in is the brief moment when life reveals itself without awareness of being observed. Those moments are fragile and fleeting, and once they pass, they are gone forever.”
Judge of The Independent Photographer’s 2026 Street Photography Award (open for entries until the end of March), American photographer Gulnara Lyabib Samoilova is renowned for her sensitive depictions of everyday life, blending instinct, empathy, and a photojournalistic eye to reveal quiet, unguarded human moments.
Born in Ufa, Bashkortostan, Russia, Gulnara fell in love with photography at fifteen, carrying a small plastic Soviet camera everywhere she went. Her classmates quickly dubbed her “the photographer,” and she even built a makeshift darkroom in her closet. Photography became both an obsession and an escape, offering a way to explore the world on her own terms.
After decades of practice, one of the most formative periods of her career came during her time at the Associated Press. Working in the editing room, she absorbed countless debates about what images and stories were worthy of submission to the Pulitzer Prize and World Press Photo competitions. “Those discussions taught me how to think critically about sequencing, composition, and narrative,” she says. Her nearly nine years at AP, during which the organization won eight Pulitzer Prizes, cemented her understanding of storytelling through images and the responsibility that comes with documenting the world.
Gulnara’s influences span both the artistic and personal. In 1987, seeing a Gilbert & George exhibition in Moscow opened her eyes to the possibilities of photography beyond observation, encouraging experimentation with text, emotion, and personal experience on the image surface.
Later, a letter from Mary Ellen Mark affirmed her voice as a photographer: “Hearing that from someone whose honesty and integrity I deeply respected gave me both permission and responsibility,” she recalls, a confidence that propelled her long-term series Lost Family.
Begun in 2015 and ongoing, Lost Family explores the hidden powers of identification within a family across three generations, examining how unseen loss is remembered and represented. Gulnara blends intimate family photographs with her own larger-scale images, adding colorful painted flowers as both personal symbolism and a touch of fantasy, creating collages that cross temporal and spatial boundaries. The work is at once deeply personal and open to interpretation, inviting viewers to consider their own relationship to memory, loss, and the past.
Her work seamlessly blends street photography and photojournalism, focused on moments that are unscripted and unguarded. As she explains, “I am drawn to photography that does not perform for the camera. Unscripted moments reveal vulnerability, contradiction, and humanity in ways that staged images cannot. Street photography and photojournalism place me in situations where I have no control over what unfolds, and that lack of control is essential. It forces presence, patience, and honesty.”She treats these fleeting instances not as mere images but as intimate social and emotional records, preserving fragments of life that might otherwise disappear.
In what has been an impressive and multifaceted career, Gulnara’s work in New York City after the September 11 attacks remains a defining period. Her images of the city’s grief and resilience won a World Press Photo award, capturing moments of quiet humanity amid chaos. “Photographing the city during that period affected me both personally and photographically,” she reflects, underscoring the tension between documenting history and witnessing its human consequences.
Beyond her own practice, Gulnara has championed the visibility of women in street photography. As a founder of Women Street Photographers, she sought to create a platform that went beyond symbolic inclusion, providing visibility backed by real, tangible opportunities. “Women were making strong street work, but their presence in exhibitions, books, and institutions did not reflect that reality,” she says. “I wanted to create a platform that moved beyond symbolic inclusion and instead offered tangible access through exhibitions, publications, residencies, and recognition.”
She emphasizes that leadership and representation are critical at every level: “Visibility and responsibility must exist together if a field is going to grow in a meaningful way.” Today, she sees real progress, though she acknowledges that sustaining these gains requires ongoing effort.
That same ethos of responsibility carries through to her advice for photographers. As a judge for The Independent Photographer’s Street Photography Award, Gulnara encourages emerging practitioners to develop their own voice and vision.“Slow down and build a relationship with your own way of seeing. A strong street practice is not about chasing trends, aesthetics, or social media approval. It comes from clarity of intention and sustained attention to what genuinely draws you in.”
She also advises photographing regularly but editing rigorously, spending time with your work, and being honest about what belongs together. “One strong, coherent body of work says far more than many disconnected images. Most importantly, she reminds entrants to respect the people they photograph: integrity, patience, and empathy are essential. Street photography is not about taking something from the world, but about responding to it with responsibility and care.”
Across more than four decades of work, Gulnara has maintained a quiet yet unwavering ethos: to witness life as it unfolds, to bear witness to its complexities, and to illuminate moments of truth that might otherwise remain unseen. Her images are at once intimate and expansive, bridging personal experience with broader social narratives, a testament to the profound potential of capturing the unguarded moment.
All images © Gulnara Lyabib Samoilova