Peyman Naderi is a Persian contemporary fine art and portrait photographer born in 1990. He is a self-taught photographer who started his first professional projects in the year 2013. As he began his career as a professional photographer, his first motto was to create original and creative photos through which his own perceptions of the world and art could be understood. Also, he is eager to represent a unique way of looking at various concepts in the world.
“Concept” is one of the most important parts of his photography projects, and Peyman tries to spend enough time and energy on finding the right concept. To create and discover the right idea he usually listen to classical music during his free time or at nights. Such high-quality music can inspire him and help him to concentrate on finding ways to present the world in ways that he sees. Besides, the colors that he uses in his photos create the illusion of a painting, and, hence, most people usually mistake his works as paintings.
Peyman has received several awards including Second Place In Portrait in Fine Art Photography Awards 2020, Particular Merit Mention in All About Photo Awards 2020, Bronze in Fine Portrait and Fine Art Other in One Eyeland Photography Awards 2019, 1st Place in Conceptual in Chromatic Awards 2019, 2nd Place in Fashion in Chromatic Awards 2019, Gold In Moscow International Foto Awards 2019 in Portfolio Category, Bronze In Fine Art Photography Awards 2019 In Fine Art Category, Bronze In PX3 2019 In Fine Art – People and Also Peyman has been chosen as a 100 Great Photographers of 2018 and also Took 2nd Place In Conceptual Photo In 35Awards 2018, and also he has been Winner in ND Awards, Tokyo International Foto Awards, PX3, and International Photography Awards and V Concurso International De Fotografía ‘Alicante’ 2019. His work has been published in international publications including Harper’s Bazaar Magazine and The Exhibition was In Ontario, 2019 CONTACT Photography Festival and Also The Last Exhibition was in France, 2019 Voies Off, Galerie Des Arènes and in Los Angeles, USA, La Art Show 2020, and Broken Reality Exhibit 2020. [Official Website]
Can you tell us a little about yourself?
My name is Peyman Naderi, and I am a contemporary Persian fine art and portrait photographer. I am a self-taught photographer who started his first professional projects in the year 2013. As I began my career as a professional photographer, my first moto was to create original and creative photos through which my own perceptions of the world and art could be understood. Also, I am eager to represent a unique way of looking to various concepts in the world.
My first experience as a subject of portrait photography was quite funny though. I remember that I was only six years old, and I was terrified by seeing various equipment and cameras. Trying to make me calmer, the photographer gave me a toy camera to play with while sitting on the chair. This memory, somehow, triggered my curiosity and interest in this art. I bought my first camera years later, in 2010, and started to take photos of my friends and family members. The more I got engaged in this art, the more I found out about my artistic talents and the passion I have for photography. I remember that I used to go to a burnt cotton factory located on the outskirt of Tehran, my hometown. Although the fire had ruined almost everything in the factory, a small hall with a high ceiling and golden walls was left intact. When I first entered this building, seeing this magnificent scenery inside a totally destroyed and abandoned building took my breath away and provoked my first fine art ideas inside me. As I started my first project, I used to go to this place every day to try different photography techniques and become master in them.
Then, I started studio photography to learn about various lighting techniques. I tried to include my own ideas and perceptions here, and manipulate the lighting based on my perceptions and concepts. Winning the silver medal in the Victor Polynsky competition for one of my photos called Oblivion, further increased my self-confidence and my persistence in photography. In the years after that, I won several awards in many competitions like Fine Art Photography Awards, All About Photo, Moscow International Foto Awards, Chromatic Awards, ND Awards, Tokyo International Foto Awards, PX3 and IPA, and I had my works published in various international magazines, like Harper’s Bazaar.
Can you explain us the idea or the story behind this image?
It is the story of a girl who lived through a period of history but was never seen, and though she was very artistic, she always hid from others until one day her identity was revealed. She was still trying to keep his identity a secret until she was satisfied to register herself in history. This girl’s name is Lorca, and I have been trying to portray her face with the story she has in my mind so that the whole world can touch her feelings.
One of the most interesting things for me is to show my imagination, And I thank Maryam Alyasin for trying to make my mind a reality, and the fashion stylist did it.
I think the most special thing a creative photographer can do is capture their mindsets. Unfortunately, in my country, Iran, these works of art are not supported at all, so it is very difficult to produce such costly works.
Can you explain us what equipment you used for its realization?
I currently use a Sony A7R III camera in my work and the lens I used was a Sony 24-70 GM F2.8. Of course, I use 3 Rime light in the studio, and the shaping tools we used in this work are a beauty dish and a parabolic shaper and Mola soft-light. The background that you see in the picture is made by me and my colleague; Ms. Nasim Beikzadeh, who always supports me in all projects and is a very optimistic make-up artist with a bright future.
Tell us how it is taken from the most technical aspect.
I have always looked at photography in a way that I can create a lasting work, so I usually look like a Renaissance painter to illuminate my work. I always try to create a space between dream and reality so that the viewer is amazed and can not recognize whether this work is a painting or a photo, is it real or not. I always show this duality in my work. So I have to have personalized lighting and I have to say I have tried as much as I can to keep it secret so that I can both expand it and keep it unique. The lens aperture in this photo is more closed so that it can focus on more areas. The photo was taken at a relatively angular angle to give the model more power to the audience. The angles of the 3 lights that I used in the photo are placed in such a way that you can neutralize each other in some places so that we have a much softer light in the image.
What problems and challenges did you face when you took the shot of this image?
The problems I faced were mostly because of the black clothes. Black absorbs light, but because I wanted the clothes to be light and of course there was no glare, I had to arrange the lights so that the color of the clothes would not be dark. Another problem that bothered me in this photo was that I had to try to imagine the final image in my mind, because strong imagination in fine art photography is one of the most important parts of photography, and of course the most difficult. Since in our country, this genre of photography is not supported at all, so it is very difficult to finance and the team members pay their expenses, and this is not very fair. In this project, we worked very hard in the hair section, and it took about 2 hours. Of course, I have to
thank Ms. Maryam Farshid for their efforts, and of course, Shadi Monshizadeh, who was my tireless model all the time. The last and most important problem was that I had created Lorca in my mind, and it was a dream, and because I saw Lorca as a painter, I had to try to make the space look like a painting sense in photography.
We are talking about the postproduction process. How do you get the final result?
In the past, photos were edited with special tricks that were used during photo printing, and the process of making a photo was very interesting and special. But with the advent of various programs such as Photoshop and Capture One Pro, working on photos has become much easier and anyone in their home can do the editing process, so I am no exception to this rule and editing work seems It’s very important and it should be able to eliminate or at least reduce the defects as much as possible. I have always tried to make the output of my photos high quality and only do a small amount of editing to show that photography is more important than photo editing. The technique I use in editing is very unique. I always try to keep all the skin texture and natural, and I change the colors so that it looks like a painting.