Andrea Diefenbach


Andrea Diefenbach is a German documentary photographer. She has made work about people in Ukraine and Moldova. In 2024, Diefenbach received the Dr. Erich Salomon Award from the German Society for Photography.
WWW andreadiefenbach.com

Early life and education

Diefenbach was born in Wiesbaden. She graduated from Bielefeld University of Applied Sciences and Arts in 2006.

Work

Her photobook Aids in Odessa is about the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Odessa, Ukraine. It was described in Dazed as containing "intimate moments of solitude, despair and hope". It includes a short introduction by each subject about how they contracted HIV. For the photobook Land ohne Eltern, for nearly a decade, Diefenbach followed the lives of Moldovan labor migrants in Italy and their families, particularly children, who remained in Moldova. Realitatea combines more photographs from Moldova—a country grappling with an identity crisis since gaining independence 30 years ago—with facsimiles of Moldovan newspapers and texts relating to political events of the previous ten years.

Personal life

Diefenbach is based in Wiesbaden.

Publications

Publications by Diefenbach

  • СПИД AIDS in Odessa. Berlin: Hatje Cantz, 2008. With an introduction by Boris Mikhailov.
  • Land ohne Eltern = land without parents. Heidelberg: Kehrer, 2012. With essays by Nicola Abé,, and Grigore Vieru.. In English and German.
  • *Second edition. Heidelberg: Kehrer, 2016..
  • Realitatea. Stuttgart: Hartmann. 2022. With essays by Martin Sieg and, and an interview with Diefenbach by, Ovidio Tichindeleanu, Olga Ghilca and Nora Dorogan.. In English.

Publications with contributions by Diefenbach

The Catalogue Box. Dortmund: Kettler; Cologne: The PhotoBook Museum, 2014. Edited by Markus Schaden and Frederic Lezmi. German and English text.. Box with individual publications each by Ali Taptik, Anders Petersen, Diefenbach, Carlos Spottorno, Carolyn Drake, Chargesheimer, Cristina de Middel, Daidō Moriyama, David Alan Harvey, Dominique Darbois, Ed Templeton, Hans-Jürgen Raabe, Jiang Jian, Julian Germain, Marks of Honour, Oliver Sieber, Martin Parr and Gerry Badger, Ricardo Cases, Stephen Gill, Susan Meiselas, and Todd Hido. Published on the occasion of the inauguration of the PhotoBook Museum.

Awards

Solo exhibitions

  • Land ohne Eltern,, Munich, June–July 2013