Iranian-American Photographer.
Self-taught since 2011.
Based in Pasadena, California.
Film & Digital.
Full Bio
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Photography related questions, talk to my GPT:
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Some clients include
Bare Minerals
Fuori Concorso
Jaguar North America
Kylie Jenner
Interscope Records
House of Bijan
Luna Mae London
Larus Miani
Gear Patrol
The Hundreds
Collier.Simon
Randolph Sunglasses
InsideHook
Playboy
Fuori Concorso
Jaguar North America
Kylie Jenner
Interscope Records
House of Bijan
Luna Mae London
Larus Miani
Gear Patrol
The Hundreds
Collier.Simon
Randolph Sunglasses
InsideHook
Playboy
Published on
Juxtapose Magazine
Newsweek
Monster Children
Hypbeast
Arch Daily
Ello.co
Insidehook
FStoppers
Vogue Italia
Vogue Brazil
Bio:
I was born in Gardena, California.
At the age of 4, my parents and I moved to Tehran, Iran.
In 2001, a month before 9/11, I was sent back to America to continue my education and pursue a career.
In 2005, I lost my mother to pancreatic cancer and dropped out of college.
The following years, I spent most of my time on MySpace while trying to figure out what to do with my life. By doing so, I was exposed to a world of visual arts like I had never experienced before. I fell in love with graphic design and decided to go to school for it.
I graduated in 2011, and around the same time, was given a digital camera by one friend and a film camera by another.
I was working as a graphic designer and photographing friends and friends of friends on the weekends for fun. Eventually, I got fired from that job but kept doing photo shoots while looking for another design job.
Slowly, I started booking clients who were willing to pay me a few hundred bucks to shoot stuff for their brands, so I decided to pursue a new career and become a male stripper. Kidding. I decided to pursue photography as a career instead of design.
From 2013 to 2016, I made “a name” in the industry by photographing celebrities, models, and working with renowned brands like Bare Minerals, Jaguar North America, The Hundreds, House of Bijan, and more.
Towards the end of 2015, I started realizing that most of my pursuits had been superficial. I started questioning my direction and the intentions behind it. Everything I had been photographing until that point was a copy of other people’s blueprints that came before me.
In 2016, I found meditation and began the process of dismantling all I had known and held onto. The more I dug in, the more I realized I don’t know anything about the intricacies of life or self awareness; and that I am, in fact, dumb as fuck.
The process of meditation was so shocking that I became curious about a bunch of other subjects like mysticism, quantum physics, and natural laws. I formed a new relationship with light, photography, history, and mythology.
That same year I stopped posting on social media and taking on new clients. I fell in love with photographing plants and flowers, and my main subject of study became light itself. I found that the only way to truly showcase light was to use shadows, thus establishing an approach in my work that became very shadow-heavy.
From 2016 to 2018, I worked on a coffee table book shot entirely on film using analog cameras and natural light called Private Collection. I self-published and sold out the first edition. The book was well-received, but of course, there’s a lot I would do differently about it now.
In 2019, I collaborated with Feeny’s Photo on a collection of 1 of 1 pieces based around film photography called Optica. We presented the series during a month-long exhibition in Beverly Hills, California. This collaboration allowed us to take photography and turn it into a sculptural experience.
Additionally, in 2019, I published a book titled 'Photo Zero.' This work is rooted in the belief that the eye behind the viewfinder is a more crucial element in photography than the camera itself. The foundation of the book, referred to as 'Chapter 0,' emphasizes the importance of meditation and the art of shifting perspectives.
In 2020, the pandy (pandemic) hit. The world shut down, but I was already accustomed to a slower pace of life, so I continued photographing plants and flowers. However, towards the end of the year, I began to reconnect and collaborate with models from the earlier part of my career.
This resurgence set the stage for the following years, where my work has evolved into a blend of everything I’ve been capturing for the past decade: people, nature, cars, architecture, and anything under the sun.
I don’t know how to wrap this up.
Taxes are haram.
Newsweek
Monster Children
Hypbeast
Arch Daily
Ello.co
Insidehook
FStoppers
Vogue Italia
Vogue Brazil
Bio:
I was born in Gardena, California.
At the age of 4, my parents and I moved to Tehran, Iran.
In 2001, a month before 9/11, I was sent back to America to continue my education and pursue a career.
In 2005, I lost my mother to pancreatic cancer and dropped out of college.
The following years, I spent most of my time on MySpace while trying to figure out what to do with my life. By doing so, I was exposed to a world of visual arts like I had never experienced before. I fell in love with graphic design and decided to go to school for it.
I graduated in 2011, and around the same time, was given a digital camera by one friend and a film camera by another.
I was working as a graphic designer and photographing friends and friends of friends on the weekends for fun. Eventually, I got fired from that job but kept doing photo shoots while looking for another design job.
Slowly, I started booking clients who were willing to pay me a few hundred bucks to shoot stuff for their brands, so I decided to pursue a new career and become a male stripper. Kidding. I decided to pursue photography as a career instead of design.
From 2013 to 2016, I made “a name” in the industry by photographing celebrities, models, and working with renowned brands like Bare Minerals, Jaguar North America, The Hundreds, House of Bijan, and more.
Towards the end of 2015, I started realizing that most of my pursuits had been superficial. I started questioning my direction and the intentions behind it. Everything I had been photographing until that point was a copy of other people’s blueprints that came before me.
In 2016, I found meditation and began the process of dismantling all I had known and held onto. The more I dug in, the more I realized I don’t know anything about the intricacies of life or self awareness; and that I am, in fact, dumb as fuck.
The process of meditation was so shocking that I became curious about a bunch of other subjects like mysticism, quantum physics, and natural laws. I formed a new relationship with light, photography, history, and mythology.
That same year I stopped posting on social media and taking on new clients. I fell in love with photographing plants and flowers, and my main subject of study became light itself. I found that the only way to truly showcase light was to use shadows, thus establishing an approach in my work that became very shadow-heavy.
From 2016 to 2018, I worked on a coffee table book shot entirely on film using analog cameras and natural light called Private Collection. I self-published and sold out the first edition. The book was well-received, but of course, there’s a lot I would do differently about it now.
In 2019, I collaborated with Feeny’s Photo on a collection of 1 of 1 pieces based around film photography called Optica. We presented the series during a month-long exhibition in Beverly Hills, California. This collaboration allowed us to take photography and turn it into a sculptural experience.
Additionally, in 2019, I published a book titled 'Photo Zero.' This work is rooted in the belief that the eye behind the viewfinder is a more crucial element in photography than the camera itself. The foundation of the book, referred to as 'Chapter 0,' emphasizes the importance of meditation and the art of shifting perspectives.
In 2020, the pandy (pandemic) hit. The world shut down, but I was already accustomed to a slower pace of life, so I continued photographing plants and flowers. However, towards the end of the year, I began to reconnect and collaborate with models from the earlier part of my career.
This resurgence set the stage for the following years, where my work has evolved into a blend of everything I’ve been capturing for the past decade: people, nature, cars, architecture, and anything under the sun.
I don’t know how to wrap this up.
Taxes are haram.