"Talking about people is my main interest. Years ago, I was actively involved with the issues of women’s rights. It was the time that I directly showed the achievements or problems of Iranian women. But gradually, I shifted towards the subjects of human rights. Now, I prefer to talk about the concerns that deal with not a single gender, but the human tribe."
One of Iran’s leading contemporary photographers, Shadi Ghadirian was born in1974 in Tehran, Iran, where she lives and works today. A student of the renowned photographer and photography historian Bahman Jalali,Ghadirian was among the first to graduate in photography from Azad University in Tehran. Her photography explores contemporary life in post-revolutionary Iranian society, with a focus on the role of women of her generation. Ghadirian is a cofounder of the association Fanoos Photo, a platform for contemporary photography in Iran. Her work has appeared in several solo exhibitions, such as those at the Los Angeles CountyMuseum of Art (2008 and 2011), as well as in Mumbai, Jerusalem, and Paris, amongother cities. Her work has also been featured prominently in several major exhibitions of contemporary Middle Eastern art, such as Light from the Middle East: New Photographyat the Victoria and Albert Museum in London (2012) and She WhoTells a Story,at the MFA Boston (2013).
Text courtesy She Who Tells A Story: Women Photographers from Iran and the Arab World, by Kristen Gresh, 2013
SELECTED COLLECTIONS
British Museum, London, United Kingdom
Victoria and Albert Museum, London, United Kingdom
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles,CA
Smithsonian Museum, Washington,D.C.
Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France
Museum of Contemporary Art, Tehran, Iran