Rena Effendi

FiftyCrows International Fund for Documentary Photography
2004 Central Asia and the Caucasus competition
Category 1: Regional Winner

About Rena

Rena Effendi received a B.A. in Philology from the Azerbaijan Institute of Foreign Languages and worked as an economic development specialist for the Agency for International Development in Azerbaijan.  Since 2001, Effendi has photographically documented issues ranging from orphans with bone tuberculosis to post-Taliban Kabul, to condemned communities in Balakhani. A member of the Caucasus Agency of Photojournalists (PATKER) since 2002, her work has appeared in numerous online and print publications as well as promotionally for the World Health Organization. Effendi has exhibited her photographs in Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, France, and Greece. 

As a native of Baku, Azerbaijan, Effendi invests both personal insight and civic concern in her essay"Mahalla: Faces of Change", a pleading look at an impoverished and vanishing community within the very city she calls home.