Federica Valabrega was born in Rome, Italy in 1983. She received her Bachelor of Science in Integrative Physiology from the University of Colorado at Boulder in 2006 and her Master of Arts from American University in Washington, D.C. in 2008. Valabrega lived in New York City from 2010 until 2020, when she moved back to Rome, Italy. Her photographs have been published in: The New York Times Magazine, TIME Magazine, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg Business Weeks, LA Times and Npr.org, Vanity Fair Italy, Vogue Italy, M Le Magazine du Monde, La Repubblica, L’Espresso, La Stampa, and Il Corriere della Sera.
Valabrega'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. Valabrega is interested in getting as close as possible to her subjects’ lives. She applies a narrative layer to the visual storytelling, portraying both the intrinsic beauty and the hidden controversies of her subjects in all their complexity.
In 2013 she published the photobook Daughters of the King, a documentary project on the role of women within the Orthodox Jewish communities in New York, Israel, Morocco, Tunisia, and Paris. She exhibited this photo essay worldwide until 2017. She now works in Rome, Italy as an assignment photojournalist for The Washington Post and Bloomberg Business Weeks; she also does advertising campaigns for private clients such as: Ferrovie dello Stato (FS) (the Italian Railway System) and works on her own personal project on the results of sea level and temperature rising due to climate change.
She has been a lecturer in Digital Photography and Photojournalism in Rome since July 2022. She started teaching at Temple in May 2025.
WebSite: www.federicavalabrega.com
Degrees
American University - M.A. Journalism & Public Affair - Wash., D.C. - Aug. ’08
University of Colorado - B.A. Integrative Physiology - Boulder, Co. - May ’06
Courses Taught
ART 2603- Photo I: Digital
Awards
Winner of the Chosen section of “American Photographer 35” - photography competition in New York, N.Y. May 2019
Second place at the “BNL Photography Prize” at the Milan Image Fair (MIA) photography show in Milan, Italy with the image “Chanel 5” from the photography book “Daughters of the King” - May 2014.
First place at the “Premio Amerigo” sponsored by the U.S. Embassy in Rome for her work as an Italian photo-reporter abroad “for showing the United States of America to Italians”- December 2013.
Winner of the “Premio Labo’” with “Daughters of The King” at the Foiano Photography Festival with a special mention in National Geographic Italy - October 2012.
Finalist of the “Foto Visura Project” dedicated to Women in Photography with her work from “Daughters Of The King” featured at Photoville photo-exhibit on the streets of Brooklyn, N.Y. - June 2012.
Finalist of the FOTOBAMA Week Contest with the photo “She Has A Dream” that was featured in the Newseum Museum of News in Washington, D.C. and published in the book "Fotobama: Picturing The President" edited by Aba Agency in D.C. - May 2009.
Exhibits
Nov. 2013 - Sept. 2015 - Photographer/Exhibitor - ETG Gallery- Rome, Italy.
Produce solo exhibit “Daughter of The King” and tour her book with the same title as a represented artist by Italian gallerists Ermanno Tedeschi in Rome, Milan and Tel Aviv.
Sept. 2014 - Selected participant to Visa Pour L’Image Photo Festival in Perpignan, France with her project “Daughters of the King.”
April 2016 - Selected participant to the International Photography Festival in Tel Aviv, Israel with a solo exhibit of her project “Daughters of the King.”
March 2017 - Selected participant to “Cherchez la Femme,” a visiting exhibit at the Stiftung Jüdisches Museum Berlin, Germany with her project “Daughters of the King.”
June 2018 – Selected images from her project “Daughters of the King” were shown in a group exhibit called "Wig, Headscarf, Habit" in the Stadthaus Ulm Museum in Germany.
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