About the Book
Shadi Ghadirian is one of Iran’s leading contemporary photographers. Born in Tehran in 1974, she rose to prominence in the late 1990s and has become a defining voice of her generation. Shaped by the restrictions of post-revolutionary Iran, her provocative and quietly subversive photographs explore the limits of freedom and expression, and a yearning for liberty and a more colourful life.
This expanded second edition traces the full arc of her practice: from the concentrated stillness of the black-and-white Untitled Qajar series, through the vivid still lifes of Nil Nil, to the digitally manipulated Ctrl+Alt+Delete and the prophetic geopolitics of Seven Stones. Across three decades, Ghadirian has navigated the boundaries between personal and public, tradition and modernity, and documentary and fiction.
With subversive charm and wit, she turns her lens on domesticity, authority and everyday life, confirming her place as one of the most original photographers of her time.
About the Artist
Shadi Ghadirian studied photography under the renowned photographer and historian Bahman Jalali and was among the first graduates in photography from Azad University in Tehran. She is a co-founder of the Fanoos Photo Association, a platform for contemporary photography in Iran. Her work has been exhibited internationally, including at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts Boston and Centre Pompidou. Her photographs are held in major collections including the British Museum and V&A, London; LACMA, Los Angeles; the Smithsonian, Washington, DC; MUMOK, Vienna; and Centre Pompidou, Paris. She lives in Tehran. www.shadighadirian.com
