Rahi Rezvani’s work can best be described as a cross between film, photography and painting. His father was a painter and a large part of his immediate family works in the film industry. Traces of each of these disciplines can be found in Rezvani’s work. He has a keen eye for detail, for composition, for a cinematic way to tell a story in photography. Rezvani focuses mainly on portrait photography and has a unique way of working. The scenes are fantasy but there is no place for lies and forgeries. What you see are amazing and true people, first unseen, but now coming to life in the photographs of Rezvani.

They show colorful people in his – almost universally black and white – photographs. It’s as if he gazes within the portrayed and gives you the feeling that you’ve meet someone the likes of whom you have never met before in real life. “I want to touch the soul,” is what Rezvani explains, “not only of the person I portray but also of the one who is looking at my work. I’m always looking for that and I can’t stop, I’m crazy about it”. Looking at the pictures of Rezvani is a true experience; take a close look and you will see.

Rahi Rezvani studied at the art academy in Teheran and at the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague (The Netherlands).

The exhibition was initially conceived and curated for the Athens Photo Festival (Athens, November 2011).

— Produced by United Photo Industries Curated by Marga Rotteveel