Eleanor Moseman is a photojournalist that was based in China from 2008 to 2020, with her main focus on the plight of Tibetan and Uyghur women.

Eleanor Moseman

eleanor.moseman@gmail.com 9378295103 United States

Topics of Focus

Tibetan and Uyghur life and culture. More specifically, women's issues in daily and work life, while not excluding things such as domestice abuse and poverty. Over a decade of archives (2011-2020) from Tibet and Xinjiang.

Geographic Areas of Focus

Tibet (and Tibetan regions of Nepal and India), Xinjiang (East Turkestan), Bangladesh, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan

Biography

Eleanor Moseman is a photographer, adventuress, and storyteller focusing on social and cultural narratives involving women and persecuted groups of people around Asia. More specifically, she visually conserves the politically sensitive regions of Tibet and Xinjiang. She has a BFA in Photography and Film from Virginia Commonwealth University.

From 2008-2020, Eleanor was based in China and focused her efforts on drawing international awareness to the humanitarian issues of persecuted Buddhists in Tibet and the Muslim Uighurs (or Uighur community) of Xinjiang. As political regimes eradicate these cultures’ traditions and the landscapes change, she is working on creating photographic historical records of an era soon to be gone.

Eleanor uses her photography and storytelling skills to contribute to the research of anthropologists, historians, conservationists, and activists. Eleanor is deeply committed to women’s issues that range from persecuted Buddhist and Muslim women to female competitors in the World Nomad Games in Kyrgyzstan.

Eleanor’s photography has been published in The Guardian, PBS NewsHour, The Atlantic, Nikon: Learn & Explore, The LA Times, and many other international publications. In 2020 her work was exhibited at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington D.C., the Rose-Hulman Institute, and the British Museum in London.

Eleanor began exploring Asia on a two-year 15,000-mile solo bicycling tour around China, Tibet, and Central Asia that ended in 2012. This adventure was the catalyst that moved her towards a career in photojournalism while embarking upon many more intrepid solo adventures. These journeys into remote regions of Asia bring her closer to the people, culture, and pressing social issues that need to be documented and shared with the rest of the world through photography and knowledgeable reports. 

In addition to her documentary-style work, Eleanor is also a noted architecture and interior photographer with assignments that have taken throughout Asia and the United States. She also owns and manages a photography studio and gallery, “The Lone Huntress Photography Studio” in Dayton, Ohio where she creates portraits and displays her work from around the world.

Eleanor speaks fluent Mandarin and beginning her third year of Tibetan language studies at Indiana University, Bloomington. She holds a certificate from NOLS as a Wilderness Medicine First Responder, hoping to use these skills and knowledge to pass along in underserved areas that speak Tibetan. Eleanor has also recently finished the "world's most difficult bike race" in Kyrgyzstan. Finishing as third place among the solo woman in the Silk Road Mountain Race and the only woman from North America to finish this 1200-mile race in one of the world's most remote regions.

With Tibet being blocked off from the world since she left three years ago, Eleanor plans to return as soon as possible to continue her long-term work, begin new projects, and share how this delicate region has changed over the last few years. As one of the few photographers working continually in the region for over a decade, she feels a responsibility to document and share what has transpired politically, physically, and culturally since Covid changed the world.

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