Maria Guțu was born in 1996 in Moldova. In 2022, she finished her studies at the Docdocdoc School of Modern Photography in Saint Petersburg. Earlier, in 2020, she graduated in cinematography at the Academy of Music, Theatre, and Fine Arts in Chișinău, Moldova.
She is interested in remote places, youth, the notion of home, and the relationship between humans and the environment. In 2022 and 2023, she was shortlisted for the Sony World Photography Awards with her portraits from the Homeland project. In 2023 and 2024, she was shortlisted and became one of the winners of Portrait of Humanity by the British Journal of Photography. In 2023, she received a mentorship grant from the VID Foundation.
In 2024, Guțu became the Leica Oskar Barnack Newcomer winner for her long-term project Homeland. She has participated in collective exhibitions in countries such as Romania, Germany, the UK, and Hungary.
In 2018, she became one of Artpil’s 30 Under 30 women photographers. Since 2021, Maria has been a member of Women Photograph. Since 2023, Guțu has been represented by the Chișinău-based gallery in Lutnița.