Lua Ribeira was born in 1986, Galicia, in the north of Spain. She received a BA Hons in Media Studies at the University of Vigo, 2009. In 2010 she moved to Barcelona and studied Graphic Design, where she discovered photography. Adopting it as vocation, Lua moved to the U.K. in 2012 and later enrolled on the Documentary Photography course, at the University of South Wales, where she graduated with honors in 2016.

Her practice, characterized by its collaborative nature, is the result of extensive research and an immersive approach to the subject matter. Ribeira is interested in trespassing social barriers, and breaking the structural separation in relation to particular communities. By exploring the perception of life generated outside the strictly socially acceptable, she aims to question the morals and values she grew up by.

Lua is the recipient of the Firecracker Grant 2015, Jerwood Photoworks Award 2018, and the Magnum Graduate Photographers Award 2017. Her series Noises in the Blood, about Jamaican dancehall culture in the U.K. was published in book form by Fishbar in 2017. The series was also published in the book “Firecrackers, Female Photographers Now” 2017 Thames and Hudson Ltd.

Lua joined Magnum as a Nominee in 2018,was granted Associate status in 2020, and became a member in 2023.