Shadi Ghadirian

Shadi Ghadirian (b. 1974) is a contemporary photographer who became popular worldwide in the 1970s for her photographs showing the cultural issues of Iranian society related to women and creating a connection between the traditional and modern elements of the country.

Ghadirian was born in Tehran and received her bachelor's degree in photography from the Islamic Azad University in 1998. Shortly afterward, with the help of Kaveh Golestan, her first solo was held at the Golestan Gallery in Tehran. In the following years, the artist's photographs were displayed at various art events around the world, including the Moscow Biennial, the "Iranian Contemporary Art" show at the Barbican Art Center in London, the Foto Art Festival in Poland, and the  "Word into Art: Artists of the Modern Middle East" show at the British Museum in London.$$quote$$ 

Displaying a kind of confrontation can be considered as the most prominent feature of Shadi Ghadirian's collection of photographs; the confrontation between tradition and modernity and between the image of the social identity of the Iranian woman and the artist's personal experience. To create her works, Ghadirian first makes her desired image and then photographs it. Her photographs can be considered as narrators of concerns that have been expressed through the selection and sorting of subjects.

Shadi Ghadirian's collection "Qajar", which is her first significant collection, was introduced internationally due to showing the relationship between the traditional and contemporary life of women in Iran. In this collection, Ghadirian influenced by the Qajar period style of photography and the women's clothes and make-up design, as well as the use of tools and elements of the contemporary period, has created photographs similar to the images of Qajar women doing modern works.

We can mention "West by East" as her other collection and also "Nil, Nil" and "White Square" which are inspired by the Iraq-Iran War. In these collections, Ghadirian has once again retold a new narrative by showing the confrontation and juxtaposition of the elements related to the war and women.

"Be Colorful" exhibition at the Robert Klein Gallery, Boston, "Like Every Day" and "Miss Butterfly" at the  Silk Road Gallery, Tehran, have been some of the most important solo shows of Shadi Ghadirian in recent years. Also, the book "Narrator of Soveyda" a conversation between Nazanin Khosravani and Shadi Ghadirian, was unveiled in 2018, at the same time as a show with the same title, at 009821 projects in Tehran. The artist's works have been displayed in recent decades at Teer Art, Art Miami, Paris Photo, and Artissima.