Born 1984 in Berlin, she lives in Hamburg. Lia Darjes studied photography at the HAW Hamburg under Prof. Ute Mahler.
From 2012 to 2017 she was a member of the Parisian photo agency Picturetank. During this time, she worked mainly as a photojournalist on assignments and on freelance documentary projects. She often focussed on the media representation of Muslim people and the attempt to break down the established stereotypes associated with this.
At the same time, Lia Darjes assisted in the archive of the late photographer Ludwig Schirmer, who had become known as an advertising photographer in the GDR. From 2016 to 2018, she took part in the masterclass of Prof. Ute Mahler and Ingo Taubhorn at the Ostkreuzschule as a tutor. The resulting work Tempora Morte, which she published in book form in 2018, became well-known. She is represented by Galerie Robert Morat in Berlin. She has been working as a lecturer since 2018 and has been running the Ostkreuzschule together with Jörg Brüggemann since 2023.
