Your name
Ashkan Sahihi
Place of birth
Tehran, Iran
Place where you live now
Berlin-Neukölln, Germany
3 words to describe you
Loving Curious Restless
Why do you take pictures?
So I do not short-circuit.
To find out how I fit in with the world.
Where do you get your inspiration?
From watching my fellow wo/man.
Who are your influences?
Too many to name. Ever evolving. Those who I feel seek bravely.
What determines the subject matter you choose?
It used to be things that piss me off. Now it is things I find that contain beauty, even if not pretty.
What impact would you like your art to have?
I dream of it making me whole.
What artwork do you never get bored with?
The grainy b/w portrait I took of my kids Jaya, Ananda & Jake
Is there anything you want to add?
Yes. No. Maybe.

Holzinger/Sahihi 2023
Project statement

For my recent work I accompanied choreographer/ theatre director/performance artist Florentina Holzinger and her ensemble on and off stage during rehearsals.

In her creations I find a similar approach to my own conception of beauty as well as topics that recur frequently in my work such as tolerance, loss and belonging.

The idea was to have complete access to capture images that might allow for a story of their own without being theatre photography or some tired ‘making of’ tour merchandise photos. Rather a narrative of its own in the shape of a calendar with a year that has 18 months.

The result plays with the motif of the classic wall or pin-up calendar, but shows self-determined female bodies between strength and vulnerability, beyond traditional gender roles and beyond the usual calendar.    

ashkan sahihi
@ashkansahihi