Irina Unruh

Irina Unruh is a German documentary photographer originally from Kyrgyzstan. In 1988 at the age of 9, her family immigrated to Germany, where she reached an academic education. Unruh studied Maths, German, and Theology to become a teacher. While working as a teacher in different countries (Costa Rica, Guatemala, Italy, and Germany), Unruh was always fascinated by the diverse biographies and stories of people she encountered. While she lived and worked for five years in Rome until August 2018, she began to expand her immense passion for photography, decided to work only part-time as a teacher, and developed remarkably in documentary photography. Unruh participated as an autodidact in different workshops with international photojournalists, including Sarah Leen and Rena Effendi.
In 2021, Unruh attended the Eddie Adams Workshop XXXIV, and from January 2022 until December 2022, Irina is a VII Academy fellow. Unruh is a member of the Women Photograph network.

Currently, Irina is based between Germany and Kyrgyzstan. She is working on long-term projects. Unruh's photographic work focuses mainly on personal projects, on social and environmental issues in Germany and her birth country Kyrgyzstan.

Her work received global recognition and was exhibited internationally, for example, in Rome, at the Centre for Fine Arts "BOZAR" in Brussels, in Tbilisi, Jakarta, Toronto, and New York City. Furthermore, Unruh's work was published in Stern, FR7 Frankfurter Rundschau, Geo, and National Geographic.

In April 2020, the National Geographic Society authorized funding to support her proposed project in response to the COVID-19 Emergency Fund for Journalists. And currently, Unruh is a National Geographic Explorer and is working on a project about the diversity of walnuts in Kyrgyzstan.

Irina Unruh
Documentary Photographer I Germany I Kyrgyzstan
w:    www.irinaunruh.com   i: @irinaunruh