Shadi Yousefian

Shadi Yousefian was born in Tehran, Iran and moved to the United States when she was sixteen. She received both her Bachelors (2003) and Masters (2006) of Fine Art in photography from San Francisco State University.

In the beginning, Shadi worked in a kind of abstract expressionistic style, taking close-up shots of marks and scratches on surfaces such as walls, trash bins, and telephone booths in public places, capturing the expressions that other people had left on these surfaces. At that time, Shadi was mostly interested in composition and visual aspects of art. After a while, however, she felt a need to express her feelings through her art. Eventually, her desire to communicate a message through art resulted in her later self-portrait series, which became the main focus of her work for a long time and influenced her perspective and the way she related to the world.

In these self-portraits, Shadi was dealing with political, social, and personal issues of contemporary life such as women’s rights and cultural identity of immigrants. The issue of identity became especially significant in her work and it transformed her from thinking about identity crisis of immigrants to a more universal identity that everyone experiences in a diverse society.

In order to express these complex feelings, it became necessary for Shadi to explore the potential of photography as a medium for self-expression rather than straight representation. For instance, she works directly on her negatives, leaving her personal expression on them, then prints the final handmade negative collages. She never uses computer technology to visually enhance her work. She also started to incorporate sculptural elements like wood panels to construct bigger projects.

Shadi has exhibited her work in San Francisco, New York, Louisiana, London, and Barcelona. She received the Thirteenth Annual Stillwell Show (2002) Award for her Self-Portrait series at San Francisco State University. As a student, she also received 3rd place International Photography Awards 2004 in Fine Art Portrait Category for her Self-Portrait series and for her Universal Identity series she received 3rd place International Photography Awards 2005 in Fine Art category. Shadi was also the recipient of the prestigious Jack and Gertrude Murphy Fellowship in the Fine Arts ($2,500) in October 2005.

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Video Work: by 2+1 Productions

Jadugaran - Tasavvor

Kiosk - To Kojaie

Shadi is also a co-founder (October 2007) and art director at 2+1 Production, a video production studio specializing in music videos">In order to express these complex feelings, it became necessary for Shadi to explore the potential of photography as a medium for self-expression rather than straight representation. For instance, she works directly on her negatives, leaving her personal expression on them, then prints the final handmade negative collages. She never uses computer technology to visually enhance her work. She also started to incorporate sculptural elements like wood panels to construct bigger projects.

Shadi also co-founded 2+1 Production (with Ardalan Payvar and Afshean Hessam), a video production studio specializing in music videos. She serves as an art director and production artist at 2+1.