Rozafa Shpuza

(Albania 1969-)

Rozafa Shpuza is a poet and a photographer, a uniqueness that creates a connection between two arts. She writes poetry in Gheg dialect, but she is as well productive in the field of photography, mainly in the genre of urban and street photography. Her photos are mostly shot in the streets of her hometown, Shkodra. The subjects of her photography are urban moments of city scenes, captured in an abstract way, often surreal, with humor and well composed. The second photo gallery, perhaps the most important, is the portraits of the city dwellers, spontaneously shot in the public spaces, while performing activities or meditating in their tranquillity, captured unaware, creating a particular emotional state. What do city characters, silent passers-by, photographed in isolation, think in the midst of the urban chaos? It seems as if each of them is closed in their inner world, immersed in their thoughts and personal worries. In an individualistic society, where everyone thinks for themselves, Rozafa naturally seeks to penetrate the individual and his psychology. A third photo gallery, which I like very much, is the series of self-portraits on the streets of city, shot on sidewalks, shop windows or cafeterias, captured in superposition of different planes, alluding to a complex and confusing world in which the artist and the individual live in the modern city. Rozafa’s photographs, although unique in the Albanian photography scene, are nurtured by a rich international tradition of street photography, created and inspired by the photography of Walker Evans, Garry Winogrand, William Klein, Diane Arbus, Vivian Mayer, and others.

Below you can read a description that Rozafa Shpuza makes of her urban photography, given to TatiSpace. How did the creative process start, what was the beginning and the inspiration?

Rozafa Shpuza: Photography is a long-standing love of mine, which continues to inspire me and be an important part of my daily life. I have been dealing with photography for many years, sometimes more intensely and sometimes more calmly, and I can say without fear that photography has made my life beautiful. I bought my first camera in Denmark when I went to do a specialization course in 1994. The dynamics of that country, the architecture, the people, the different way of conceiving public spaces tempted me to fix all this on my incredibly modest camera. Since then I have not stopped. I photograph on the street because I feel that the characters I capture are real and convey the message of life without frames. Street photography is the most important part of my artistic creativity. I travel a lot because I feel like cities have a lot of surprises for my camera. The last album with street photos is the one I made in Shkodra during the isolation period of the Covid 19 pandemic. An empty city, scared characters in a hurry, closed windows and doors, all these sensations are already fixed in my album "The diary of an anxious season". I have participated in many activities dedicated to photography, in joint and personal exhibitions, at home and abroad, with the good desire to get to know photographer artists and to see where my photography stands compared to their photos. 3 years ago I opened an art gallery in Shkodra, at the old parents' house, with the good desire to promote artists from all over the world.

Urban Moments

Portraits of Passers-by

Color Photography

You can see more of Rozafa Shpuza photos, in her social media, Facebook, Instagram and Galleria Oda.