Shadi Ghadirian

Tehran-based photographer Shadi Ghadirian is known for portraits that probe issues of gender, religion, and geopolitics. Her series Like Everyday ironically exaggerates the traditional gender roles prescribed by Islamic law. Modestly covered in patterned scarves, her subjects' faces are obscured by typical domestic items like irons, brooms, pots, and pans. While her photographs take on stereotypes about the misogyny of Islamic culture, they are also universal. "It felt very natural that after marriage, vacuum cleaners and pots and pans found their way into my photographs," Ghadirian says: "These objects symbolize the apprehensions all sorts of women, no matter what part of the world they live in, still have about married life."

Ghadirian's work has been exhibited internationally, including a solo show at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 2008 and group shows at the Saatchi Gallery and Barbican Art Centre in London, Centre Georges Pompidou and Musée du Quai Branly in Paris, and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Tehran.