Nelly Ating is a photojournalist who focuses on questions of identity, education, extremism, and migration. As a photojournalist, her work has been published in local dailies in Nigeria and legacy media such as the BBC and CNN. Her photographic work documenting the rise of Boko Haram terrorism between 2014 and 2020 in Northeast Nigeria shone a light on the aftermath of violent extremism.
Ating has exhibited at galleries and photographic festivals in Africa, Europe and the US, as well as judged photography competitions such as African Women in Media (AWiM) and Uganda Press Photo Awards. She was recently selected to participate in New York University (NYU) Global Artists Convening 2022 to engage in a civic dialogue on art and social justice. She is a member of Women Photograph, Black Women Photographers, African Women in Photography, the Journal Collective, and the African Database for Photojournalists run by the World Press Photo. She is currently a PhD candidate at Cardiff University. Her research interest includes, critical advances in human rights activism and advocacy, social movements in Africa, visual culture, contemporary photography, and the decolonisation of transnational humanitarian visual campaigns.