Her relationship with photography started in New York as Archive Director at Magnum Photos (1998–2001), work which she continued in Italy until 2004. She was photo editor of Colors Magazine (2001–2004), as well as director for 9 years of the documentary photography magazine OjodePez (La Fábrica). She has been photography consultant for D-La Repubblica (2008–2011), artistic director of the Cortona On The Move Festival (2012–2021) and since 2016 she is photography curator at PhEST, contemporary art festival. Arianna is also a regular guest as a speaker, portfolio reviewer and jury at renowned photographic events around the world. She is on the selection committee of the British Journal of Photography Ones to Watch, the Leica Oskar Barnack Award and the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize.
Irene de Mendoza holds a Degree in Humanities from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and a Postgraduate Diploma in Aesthetics and Art Theory from the Universitat Pompeu Fabra. She has curated several exhibitions, such as Albarrán Cabrera. Lo Indestructible., Marcelo Brodsky. Resistencia poética, La Movida, crónica de una agitación (2019); Weegee by Weegee, Photobook Phenomenon (2017), The Temptation to Exist (2015) about photographers Christer Strömholm and Anders Petersen; Photobooks. Here and now (2014) as well as several exhibitions with the Foto Colectania collection, such as Manel Armengol. Transitions (2014) and Joan Colom. Album (2011). She has been working in Foto Colectania Foundation since 2005 and was appointed Artistic Director in 2010.
She studied Visual Arts, History and Photography in Mexico, Spain, Austria and the United States. As an artist, since 1983 she has had numerous solo exhibitions in Mexico and abroad and has published the photobooks Álbum (2000) and Kinderwunsch (2013). Since 1989 she has been involved in the organisation of activities related to photography at the Centro de la Imagen (CDMX), Centro de las Artes de San Agustín (Oaxaca) and FotoGuanajuato. Since 2012 Ana has been co-director of Hydra, a platform that includes an educational programme, a bookshop, a gallery and an editorial project. In 2016 she created INCUBADORA DE FOTOLIBROS, a program where authors develop their photobooks with the advice of editors and designers. In 2018 she founded INFRAMUNDO, a Hydra publishing project with José Luis Lugo and Ramón Pez that has published more than 28 photobooks that have been presented at fairs and competitions around the world.
She holds a PhD in artistic research, a degree in Law, Economics and a Master in Cultural Management. Her work is based on the intersections between art, technoscience and feminisms. She has worked with a number of leading institutions, among them Medialab Prado, Fundación Daniel y Nina Carasso, CCCB, Jeu de Paume or GenderArtNet. Some of the exhibitions she has curated are A propósito del Chthuluceno y sus especies compañeras (Espace virtuel du Jeu de Paume), Ciencia fricción. Vida entre especies compañeras (CCCB) or Extinción Remota Detectada (LABoral). She is advisor to the Chaire Arts & Sciences (École polytechnique, l'École des Arts Décoratifs -- PSL, Fondation Daniel et Nina Carasso) and a member of the ISEA Paris 2023 (International Symposium on Electronic Art) programming committee.