Manuela Cacciaguerra was born in Germany. In the 1980s, working for National Geographic, she lived in South America where she deepened her knowledge of the Amazon spending some months with the Yanomami people in Venezuela. In the same decade she was in Peru working in archaeological projects. In the 1990 she lived in North America becoming the official photographer of the Florida Everglades.

Cacciaguerra worked in the realm of politics, has taught colour portrait techniques at the Roman School of Photography, and she is the official photographer of the Italian Parliament. She is the author of an iconic portrait of Italian ex-premier Berlusconi, which earned him the nickname “Il Caimano”. Her portfolio includes portraits of Mario Draghi, Shimon Perez, Ahmadinejad, Ghedaffi, Toni Blair, Hamid Karzai, Nancy Pelosi, Merkel, Mubarak, Sarkozy, Albright, Hillary Clinton to mention only a few.

She also worked for years in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Miami. A highlight of her photojournalism work was when German magazine Die Welt commissioned her to cover the events after September 11 in New York City.

As one of the few accredited reporters at the Vatican, she covered the death of Jean Paul II and the election of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, later Pope Benedict XVI.

Cacciaguerra continues working as a freelance photographer all around the world.