Feanny_Najlah

Najlah Feanny (born 1961 in Kingston, Jamaica W.I.) is an American photojournalist. A graduate of Parsons, The New School for Design, Ms. Feanny has documented the American landscape for thirty years, focusing on breaking news stories and domestic politics. In 1999 she became one of only four women in the world ever to be granted a Newsweek Magazine photography contract.

Issues affecting children has long been her passion and in 2005 she co-founded the non-profit Heart Gallery of New Jersey. Bringing together more than 150 photographers, writers, editors and designers to document children in foster care and putting a face on children available for adoption. The project garnered international attention and ABC News recognized the Heart Gallery as its “Person of the Week”.

Her second nationwide project, Do1Thing, launched in 2009 when she brought together more than 30 Pulitzer-Prize winning photographers, to document and raise awareness for homeless teenagers. By using the power of storytelling to shine an “ongoing” light into the many dark places that affect our most vulnerable children and teens, the project made a call to action to Do1Thing to help.

Her long-term work continues to focus on issues affecting children.

Career

  • Design for Social GOOD Founder and chief creative officer 2009-current
  • Do1Thing (Non-profit) President and founder 2009-current
  • Heart Gallery of New Jersey (Non-profit) President and co-founder 2005-2009
  • Newsweek, contract photographer 1999-2001
  • Corbis Images, contract photographer 2001-current
  • SABA Photo Agency, contract photographer 1986-2001
  • New York Newsday, contract photographer 1985-1986
  • Dallas Times Herald, staff photographer 1984-1985

Projects

Feanny is the co-founder of the ‘Heart Gallery of New Jersey’ photography exhibition where she brought together 150 photographers to photograph children in foster care to promote their bid for adoption, photographing all 328 children who were legally eligible for adoption. ABC News recognized Heart Galleries in its “Person of the Week” article.

She founded Do1Thing,  a project where photographers donated their time to make portraits of homeless teenagers who aged out of foster care, for a traveling exhibition to inspire people to adopt.

She is the founder and chief creative officer of Design for Social GOOD, an organization that uses design solutions to highlight social dilemmas.

Selected Group Exhibitions

Private collections

Books with contributions

Press coverage