Mahya Rastegar
Born 1980 in Tehran, Iran, a graduate in Photography and a Documentary Photographer, based in Tehran, Iran.
I began to study Graphic Design in 2000, but quit it very soon in 2001 to find my field of interest somewhere else. After many years, in 2010, I started to study Photography, and graduated in 2013.
I am mainly a social documentary photographer, most interested to capture the influential stories of women’s lives. From the aspect of appearance, face and fashion, women are different from each other, but they are all the same in the way that all of them make efforts to get stronger in their inner world and possess the ability to live independently.
In addition to all my ongoing projects, I have been working on a project called “To Remain Such a Woman” since 2014. I pictured all the women I live inside myself trough 10 women living under different conditions in the real/outside world (more on portfolio). This project will be released as a book soon.
The titles of the Iranian women who were my subjects in this project are as follows:
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o A Bodybuilding Trainer o A Passenger Airplane Pilot o A Theology Student in Seminary o A Patient Suffering from Cancer o A Tai Chi (Martial Art) Coach o A Divorced Woman o A Painter o 60th Anniversary of marrige o A Singer o A Dancer o A Motorcycle Rider Woman o A Baloch Woman s Life o Without a hand but motivated |
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I also directed three short documentaries called
1.What century is outside? (About life of a 95 year old mother with Alzheimer and his 53 year old son with Down Syndrome, who haven't been able to leave home for years because of their illness.) 2. Welcome to my life (About a girl with Down Syndrome who is very interested in karate.) 3. The combination of love and motivation (About a woman who lost her right arm amputated due to an car accident and has now returned to normal life after 3 years of depression) And a long documentary called "Staying a Woman" about an Iranian woman who I have been photographing and filming since 2015 and still in progress. 4. Collaborate and film with UNICEF and Youtube Learn to make a documentary about quarantined children (Learn with me) |
Some of my photos had the chance to be released on different pages and magazines such as:
- Panospictures, UK – February 24, 2014 - L’HEBDO Magazine, France – December 25, 2015 - Refinery29 Blog – January 27, 2016 - PRI Org – February 11, 2016 - NYTimes – March 9, 2016 - www.womenphotograph.com — women Photograph: 2018 year in Pictures - welt.de- 11.02.2019 - leparisien.fr 28 February 2019 - https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/influential-women-iran-cockpit-boxing-ring-n1075121 - https://www.euronews.com/2019/11/05/cockpit-boxing-ring-these-women-defy-stereotypes-iran-n1075246 - Photo printing in Lens magazine 2019 - Fine art photography awards 2020 (portrait nominee) - Tow Phot's from NBCnews.com's November gallery of Women defying stereotypes in Iran won an AI-AP award in 2020. - Nominee in Portrait category in Fine art photography award (2020) Experience |
