In 2003, I entered the college of Journalism and began studying photojournalism. As a teenager, I had experimented with painting, but photography was a completely new and dynamic medium for me. I was very curious about how photography allowed me to explore the city and discover the world around me.

Through my studies in photojournalism, I gradually entered the world of newspapers and news agencies, and photojournalism became my job and source of income. Photojournalism means taking photos every day, always having a camera with you, and capturing various events, which meant I was constantly practicing photography. This period was an excellent practical experience for me. During this time, my news photos were exhibited in several domestic exhibitions and festivals, and I received awards. Alongside my career in photojournalism, I gradually began exploring other genres of photography, such as cinema and theater photography.

Theater photography added a sense of aesthetics and attention to color and light to my work, and with my deep interest in editing and photo processing softwares, I leaned toward photomontage and fine art photography.

The photo series “Aziz (means dear, the way that we have been calling our grandmother), Left in Memories” is a very personal collection and one of my first experiences, where I narrate the story of the last years of my grandmother’s life with Alzheimer’s. In this collection, I used the photomontage technique, combining photos I had taken of her during those years with her old family album pictures, trying to recreate her memories beyond Alzheimer’s memories that had largely faded or merged with others.

I was in my early twenties, and my grandmother was a seventy-year-old woman. In my early adulthood, I witnessed the aging process of a woman. My grandmother’s gradual changes and her physical differences compared to my mother, sister, and even myself made me ponder the meaning of beauty and the constant changes that time imposes on our bodies and minds. This led me to start the series “Find and See beauty” which includes portraits of the women in my family wearing Iranian scarves, each reflecting different colors and shapes according to their age. Examining these changes and recreating them allowed me to understand and perhaps accept these transformations better. This photo series was published in Creative Image Magazine.The initial version of this collection won first place in the Chang Fine Art photo contest in Bangkok.

After completing “Find and See beauty” I lost my grandmother. She lived with us in her final years, and towards the end, her body was shrinking towards nothingness. One morning, when I looked at her sleeping place, it was just a mattress, as if even the mattress had ignored her presence. The photo series “Place of nothingness” was born during this time. The human body and its changes over the years and different life stages remained a concern of mine. Where does our life begin, and how do we end up like my grandmother? What remains of us in the minds of others our bodies or our memories? How can this gradual and long transformation be seen more quickly and thought about more deeply? In the three fine art collections I worked on, I tried to reflect on my grandmother and time in different ways.

With a change in my place of residence, I found an opportunity to return to my past interest documentary photography. I gradually left my job in photojournalism because it had worn me out physically, and ultimately, I was left with many dated photos that didn’t satisfy my artistic desires. During this period, I picked up my camera and hit the streets a perfect playground for documentary photography. Tehran, with its countless stories and vast expanse, became an opportunity to return to documentary photography, and this time, to street photography. Between 2016 and 2023, I walked the streets of Tehran with a small compact camera, capturing the city like an observant and keen observer. Tehran, for me, had endless narratives. Here, my past experience in fine art photography merged with my experiences in documentary and news photography, allowing me to see the city as alive and dynamic, filled with form, light, and color. For me, documentary photography was not about high-contrast black-and-white images. I wanted to capture the city as I saw it. The photo series “Tehran: The City in Fragments” was the result of my initial view of Tehran, focusing on form, color, and architecture, forming the first layer of my perspective on the city.

Gradually, the presence of people and the stories of the streets merged with the city’s first layer, and the photo series “Untitled Pedestrians” emerged. In “Untitled  Pedestrians” I sought to discover the connection between the ongoing flow of the streets and the presence of people in this context. The photos captured a moment, a brief glimpse from thousands of street moments. While I occasionally referred to the decisive moment, my priority was often scenes where light and color stood out because that was how Tehran appeared to me.

In street photography, you are not just witnessing one story; with a slight change of focus, other stories also become visible. Amid the hustle and bustle of people and cars, your eyes catch the solitude of individuals. You see that among all the noise, there is little connection between people, and everyone stands beside each other with a specific distance a distance that may not be limited to the body and might come from people’s minds. The photo series “Lonely Bodies” reflects my attention to the solitude of individuals amidst the city’s chaos, observing how people create private spaces in public areas and how alone we truly are in public spaces.

After years of experiencing different photography genres, street photography remains the language I love to use to explore various currents, and the streets still have many stories left to tell…