FEDERICA VALABREGA

A LITTLE ABOUT ME

Bio

Federica Valabrega was born in Rome, Italy in 1983. She received her Bachelors in Science in Integrative Physiology at the UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO at Boulder in 2006 and her Masters in Arts at AMERICAN UNIVERSITY in Washington, D.C. in 2008. In her 10 years living in NYC, Valabrega worked on the making and publishing of her book "Daughters of the King," a documentary photography project on the lives of Orthodox Jewish women from among five countries in the world. Selected images from the book were exhibited in Rome at the Ermanno Tedeschi Gallery in 2013 as her first solo show. The same images were also brought by Tedeschi at the MIA (Milano Image Fair) in 2014 where she won the “BNL photography prize.” Later, Valabrega's images were selected for the Documentary photography exhibit at the “Visa Pour l’Image” Photo Festival in Perpignan, France in 2014 and at the Para Photo in Turin, Italy that same year, and at the International Photography Festival in Tel Aviv in 2016. From 2016 until 2018, her images have been part of the collective exhibit “Cherchez La Femme” traveling across Germany first at the Jewish Museum in Berlin, Germany and later at The Jewish Museum Franconia in Ulm, Germany until January 2019.

Since 2017, she has been known worldwide for her black and white images of the FEARLESS GIRL standing strong in front of the WALL STREET bull that she shot for State Street Global Advisory under the AD company McCann as a symbol of women’s emancipation within the male-predominant finance world in New York. The image and the campaign won Four GRAND PRIX and 18 LIONS at the Cannes Festival in 2017 for pushing gender equality, inclusivity and diversity within the PR/Advertising world. The images became a world-renowned icon and Valabrega has now sold close to 100 of these images to private clients as well.

Among her private clients: LTH Luxury Villas in Sardinia, Ferrovie dello Stato (FS) in Rome, Italy, the advertising agency McCann, in New York, N.Y., the Italian Production Company Filmmaster in Milano, Italy, the Italian Publishing House Arnoldo Mondadori Editori in Milano, Italy, The Gruppo HDRA` in Rome, Italy, The Purdue University Press in West Lafayette, Indiana and the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah.

Her photographs have been published in a number of U.S. based publications such as, The New York Times Magazine, TIME Magazine, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg News, Philadelphia Enquire, LA Times, Npr.org, Tricycle Magazine, Roads & Kingdom as well as in a number of European ones such as, Vanity Fair Italy, Vogue Italy, M Le Magazine du Monde, Le Monde de religions, Dummy Magazine, Haaretz, Biber Magazine, La Repubblica, L’Espresso, La Stampa, Il Corriere della Sera and Panorama.

She likes to photograph in medium format color film as well as digital. Her stories are focused on the most intimate, vulnerable and subtle moments people find themselves into as "the magic of photography" happens right then.

She lives between Rome, Italy and New York City teaching photography at John Cabot University and following her personal and editorial assignments. 

ABOUT MY PROCESS

Work

artist statement: 

Federica’s photography and personal projects both focus on people. Her fascination with humans– particularly those who find self-expression difficult in a world full of societal taboos – is rooted in her own unique and challenging experience as an Italian immigrant in a foreign country. Federica is interested in getting as close as possible to her subjects’ life. She applies a narrative layer to the visual storytelling, portraying both the intrinsic beauty and the hidden controversies of her subjects in all of their complexity. By layering these two skills and pushing her own boundaries, traveling to foreign countries constantly, she is able to extract and expose what it's most of the time, deeply hidden, within the superficial lawyering of truth.

awards:  

•       On May 2019  - Two images of the Caravan Mothers escaping domestic violence from Honduras to Mexico won within the "Chosen" for the American Photography 35 Photo Prize . 

•      On June 2017 - The McCann Fearless Girl campaign with my image of the girl's statue wins FOUR Grand Prix  and 18 LIONS in the Advertising category of the Cannes Festival in France.  

•     On February 2016 -  Instagram suggested/featured user, I gained 20K plus followers on the social media site for being a feature/suggested user. 

•      On May 22, 2014 - the image “Chanel N5,”  won the second place at the “BNL photography prize” within the Milan Image Fair (MIA) photography show in Milan, Italy.

•      In December 2013 - Federica won the “Premio Amerigo” for her work as an Italian photo-reporter abroad. The journalistic prize was sponsored by the U.S. Embassy in Rome.

•      In October 2012, Federica was the winner of the “Premio Labo'” with “Daughters of The King” at the Foiano Photo Festival with a special mention in the National Geographic Blog. 

•      In June 2012 Federica was nominated as a Finalist of the Foto Visura Project dedicated to Women in Photography with  “Daughters Of The King” and featured at Photoville. 

•     In May of 2009 Federica’s photo “She Has A Dream” was featured in the Newseum, in Washington, D.C. as a Finalist of the FOTOBAMA Week Photo Contest.