NEWSHA TAVAKOLIAN
b. 1981, IranA self-taught photographer born in 1981 and based in Tehran, Newsha Tavakolian began working professionally in the Iranian press at the age of 16, at women’s daily newspaper “Zan”. At the age of 18, she was the youngest photographer to cover the 1999 student uprising.
In 2002 she started working internationally, covering the war in Iran for several months. She has since covered regional conflicts, natural disasters and made social documentary stories.
In 2009 Newsha covered the Presidential elections in Irean, which ended up in chaos and forced her to temporarily halt her photojournalistic work. Instead she started working on project that experts describe as a mix of social documentary photography and fine art.
Her work ranges from reportage of political events to portraits and series on socially-engaged topics. Newsha’s work has been widely exhibited at international institutions, including Victoria & Albert Museum, Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), British Museum and Boston Museum of Fine Art and published in international magazines and newspapers all around the world. In 2014 Tavakolian was the fifth laureate of the Carmignac Gestion Photojournalism Award. In 2015 she was the principle laureate of the Prince Claus Award. Tavakolian became a Magnum Associate-Photographer in 2015
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