Daniela Federici

Daniela Federici is an internationally acclaimed, award-winning photographer and film director whose cinematic imagery has shaped fashion, travel, and celebrity culture for more than three decades. Emerging in the early 1990s as one of the defining image-makers of her generation, she became known for crafting iconic, visually arresting narratives across photography, film, and advertising. Her work spans global luxury houses including Gues Jeans with Anna Nicole Smith, Dior, Bulgari, Zegna, and Tory Burch, alongside collaborations with cultural figures such as Prince, Lenny Kravitz, Alicia Keys, and Kim Kardashian. Early in her career, she received an MTV Award (1992) for directing Mariah Carey’s "Anytime You Need a Friend," marking the beginning of a multidisciplinary career bridging music, fashion, and cinema. Federici’s fashion film Storm for Badgley Mischka won Best Film at the International Fashion Film Festival (2016). Her work has also been honored by the AOP Awards, World Masters of Photography, and the International Photography Awards, recognizing her contributions across editorial, commercial, and branded content. Holding Italian, Australian, and American citizenship, Federici has lived and worked internationally across New York, Milan, London, Paris, Los Angeles, India, the Middle East, and Bali. After more than two decades based in New York, she now operates globally between Bali, Milan, and the United States, bringing cultural fluency and an international perspective to her work in luxury, lifestyle, and travel storytelling. In 2013, she founded Nomad Media Industries, a boutique advertising agency and production company specializing in cinematic campaigns for luxury fashion and hospitality brands. The company has produced global work for Taj Hotels & Palaces, Rosewood Hotels & Resorts, Crown Resorts, and The Londoner Macao. In 2021, she expanded into long-form programming with Nomad Films, focusing on documentary, environmental storytelling, and culturally driven content. As an environmental advocate, Federici was invited to speak at UNESCO in Paris on sustainability and the fashion industry’s environmental impact, establishing her as a voice at the intersection of culture, ethics, and visual media. In 2023, she created CASA FEDERICI, a cinematic television series and multi-platform lifestyle brand documenting her relocation from New York to Bali. The series explores design, architecture, artisan ship, wellness, sustainability, and reinvention, marking her evolution from image-maker to on-camera host and long-form storyteller. She is developing Ma’am, a feature documentary examining her four-year creative collaboration with Anna Nicole Smith. Told from the perspective of the image-maker, the film explores authorship, fame, and the construction of a cultural icon in the pre-social media 1990s. Across fashion, film, and documentary, Daniela Federici’s career reflects a singular throughline: crafting the images that define eras while interrogating the power and responsibility behind them.