I am 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.

From 2015 until now, I’ve been working on a long-term documentary photographing project with topic of Iranian women with influential stories. The collections of photos about each woman have the form of stories of their lives, meaning that I’m talking about the lives of these women by taking pictures of them.

While holding on to the passion of presenting all type of women issues as a woman and after some serious researches and studies, I started shooting Iranian women trough different projects since 2013.

In addition to all my ongoing projects, I have been working on a project called “To Remain Such a Woman” since 2016. 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.

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
  • Tow photographs from nbcnews.com com’s November 2020 gallery of women defying stereotypes in
    Iran won an AI-AP award.
  • Nominee in Portrait category in Fine art photography award (2020)
  • https://www.all-about-photo.com/photo-articles/photo-article/747/light-of-life-by-mahya-rastegar 2020
  • Art Market Magazine Issue#52, October 2020 – PUBLISHED!  2020
  • The ND Awards 2020 international photography contest:
  • Staying Such A Woman (Series, Professional) id 20/34546 – Honorable Mention in Editorial: Documentary category. https://ndawards.net/winners-gallery/nd-awards-2020/professional/documentary/hm/12488/   2020

I find myself a potent photographer especially at women related issues and I can proudly provide professional assistance.