Talissa is available for collaborations, speaking engagements, and commissioned projects aligned with her ongoing fieldwork.

For assignments, print purchase, or image licensing, please contact: talissamakdessi(at)gmail.com

Talissa Makdessi (b. 1989) is a Swedish-Lebanese photographer, director and researcher whose work examines Meaning in Motion: how people, traditions, and landscapes are shaped by movement.

She is particularly concerned with documenting what is at risk of being lost: fragile ecosystems, intangible cultural heritage, and the lived human experience of policy, conflict, and climate change.

Her fieldwork has included living nomadically for 18 months across Aotearoa New Zealand, six months of overland travel through South America, and walking 2000km on major European pilgrimage routes, including the Camino Francés, Via Francigena and Jakobsweg.

Through extended immersion, remaining attentive to power, regulation, history and ethics alongside visual and narrative craft - Talissa seeks to create work that is both emotionally resonant and intellectually rigorous.

In 2025, she was elected a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society (FRGS) and formally endorsed by Patriarch Youssef Absi in recognition of her ongoing work on pilgrimage and contemporary sacred geographies.

She is the founder of ThePilgrimPrj, a social enterprise dedicated to preserving the cultural, spiritual, and ecological heritage of historic pilgrimage routes. The project unites fieldwork, visual storytelling, and scholarly research to support responsible contemporary pilgrimage, strengthen local communities, and contribute evidence-based insight to cultural policy and infrastructure discussions.

Talissa undertakes postgraduate research in Global Political Economics at King’s College London. She holds an MA in Culture & Creative Industries from KCL, a BFA in Theatre Arts and Art History from Boston University, and a Graduate Diploma in Law (England and Wales). 

She has been commissioned by organisations including the Southbank Centre, The Poetry Society, LND Grey+Green Theatre, Guerilla Science, and MedAct. Her work has been published and exhibited in outlets such as Greys Magazine V2, Planet Venus Magazine, and the Glasgow Gallery of Photography.