Abdo Shanan was born in 1982 in Oran, Algeria to a Sudanese father and an Algerian mother. Abdo studied telecommunications engineering at the University of Sirte, Libya until 2006. In 2012, he undertook an internship at Magnum Photos Paris, which gave him the opportunity to reflect on his photographic approach. In 2015, he co-founded Collective 220, a collective for Algerian photographers. In 2016, his series Diary: Exile was selected by the Addis Fotofest. In 2019, he won the Contemporary African Photography prize for his project Dry., In the same year, he was selected for the Joop Swart Masterclass by World Press Photo. In 2020, he received the Premi Mediterrani Albert Camus Incipiens and he co-curated Narratives from Algeria at Pasquar Photoforum in Bienne, Switzerland. In 2022, he won the Sheikh Saoud Al Thani Award for his project A Little Louder.