#persiansecrets

Narges Aqamiri, Photographer & Visual Artist

As for me, photography is a means of self analysis and dreaming. I mostly shoot self-portrait cause to me It’s the most obvious way to photograph my emotion and feelings. The concept of self-portraiture is related to the concept of self-consciousness. I can feel a deep sense of connection and security through self-portraiture and that’s the most important reason why I mostly photograph myself.

For as long as I can remember, I’ve felt a strong need to create and I feel lucky that I have finally found my own form of expression in photography.

Follow Narges @nargesaqamiri

Hojjat Hamidi, Wherever I haven’t been

Hojjat was born on 1987 in Ardabil, Iran. He works as a firefighter but 4 years ago, he started taking photos with his cellphone and he discovered that photography is opening a window to the new world. To him photos are not just captured moments but are lessons and experiences.

He has learned to go out of his way just to take photos: “I went to the places that I would have never gone if it was not for photography. I have been a part of peoples joys and sorrows and it made me a better person.”

On December 2018, Apple published a video from a set of Hojjat’s photographs on their official Instagram account.

Aryan Arian Was born in Kerman, Iran to a religious and working-class family. At the age of seven my dad, who was a driver for Kerman foundry, lost his life in accident. He abjured religion at the age of seventeen and at the same time he took an interest in writing and photography and cinema and he was constantly writing short and long stories and poems to overcome my solitude; it was also due to his profound interest in art.

After graduation from high school, he was admitted into the film program of Cinema and Theater faculty and moved to Tehran and received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in directing films from the said institute.

Follow Aryan on Instagram @arianmtl or find out more on her official website.

Taravat Khalili, Filmmaker

Taravat Khalili is an experimental filmmaker. She has studied Media Arts at Sheridan College, received her Bachelor of Fine Arts and Masters of Fine Arts in Film Production from York University.

Her films have been awarded and acknowledged nationally and internationally. Some of these include, 1st and 2nd prize MaGa Macon Film Festival, 1st prize Viva Doc International, 2nd Prize Tirgan Film Festival, honorable mention twice at CineSiege and official selection by HotDocs, International Film Festival Rotterdam, Pleasure Dome, Images Film Festival and Cinematheque Winnipeg.

Follow Taravat on Instagram @ttaravatt or explore more films here.

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Saye Sohrabi, Artist Painter

An Iranian painter living in Belgium. She studied Fine Arts during secondary school and Carpet Designing at university in Iran. She moved to Belgium in 2008 to freely express her art in a liberal country.

“I try to portrait women issues and manifest my concerns for women rights in hope for an equal society. In the other word, I am using my brushes, paint tubes an canvases as a weapon to fight against this systematic inequality toward women of my country.”

“As an immigrant painter, I signify my fears, hopes, nightmares and dreams to express my feeling of alienation in a modern liberal society. I try to convey these feelings which could be mutual among thousands and thousands.”

Kourosh Sotoodeh, Fashion Beauty Photographer

Iranian born Fashion Beauty Photographer Director Kourosh Sotoodeh graduated with a BA in industrial design and subsequently started his career in 1998.

In 2009 Kourosh began working full-time as a fashion photographer in Dubai, where he honed in his craft and garnered the attention and respect of clients and creative directors alike.

It was in 2015 when he decided to reach the pinnacle of the photography world by relocating to New York City to further advance his career.

Kourosh travels the US bi-coastally for assignments and also works in Europe as well as Istanbul and Dubai where he is internationally represented.

Follow Kourosh on Instagram @kouroshsotoodeh or find out more on his official website.

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Golnaz Fathi, Language, Form & Composition

A trained calligrapher, Fathi has the ability to skillfully transform known language into form and composition. Having discovered calligraphy while studying graphic design at Tehran’s Azad University, she later left to train at the Calligraphy Association of Iran for six years. As a result, Fathi was the first woman to win an award for Ketabat, a distinct genre of calligraphy. She soon tired of the discipline’s rules and regulations and thus created a new form of expression in her paintings: an imaginary language deeply rooted in Persian tradition while simultaneously hinting at a social renaissance. Her paintings carry traces of meaning that have no known coded alphabet. The strength of her work stems from the drive to express emotions that cannot be pinned down into words; Fathi’s works succeed where language fails.

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