A non-hierarchical selection of photographic works created over the past ten years by the Iranian artist (catalogue).
The catalogue First Things First comprises a selection of images from a number of Shirana Shahbazi's photographic series created over the past ten years. The presentation of some fifty works is not necessarily categorically or linearly organized; rather, it appears completely free of hierarchy, with photographic styles, subjects, and techniques displayed on equal footing. First Things First emphasizes a juxtapositional approach, a dynamic and free arrangement of various subjects and styles: unspectacular landscapes are placed alongside fruit and flower still lifes; seemingly casual urban scenes sit alongside geometric shapes; colored compositions are in contrast to black-and-white images.
In her work, Shahbazi generates a complex interplay between images through her surprising and innovative compositions. The photographic arrangements build unexpected bridges between images and ideas to create both a balance and a tension, and to offer an alternative way of looking at the world around us.
Published on the occasion of the eponymous exhibition at KINDL – Zentrum für zeitgenössische Kunst, Berlin, from April 2 to August 6, 2017.
Awarded: “Most Beautiful Swiss Books 2017”.
Born in Tehran in 1974, Shirana Shahbazi moved to Germany at the age of 11. She studied photography in Dortmund and Zurich, where she lives and works today. Her practice has been dedicated to generating a hybrid visual language that defies simple categorization and can be experienced on multiple levels. It challenges the translation and the transcultural construction of meaning. The physical presence of her work is just as important as its semantic underpinnings.
Shirana Shahbazi took part in the 50th Venice Biennale (2003) and has had exhibitions in notable museums including Kunstmuseum, Lucerne (2026); Istituto Svizzero, Rome (2018); Museum Fotogalleriet, Oslo (2017), Camera Austria, Graz (2016), Kunsthalle Bern (2014); and The Museum of Modern Art, New York (2012/2013). She received the 2019 Meret Oppenheim Prize for Visual Arts in Switzerland and the 2022 Mutina Art Prize in Modena, Italy.
She is a member of the artists collective
Shahrzad.
Edited by Andreas Fiedler.
Contributions by Jens Asthoff and Andreas Fiedler.
Graphic design: Norm, Zurich.
published in July 2017
bilingual edition (English / German)
24 x 32 cm (hardcover, cloth binding)
24 pages (47 color ill.)
ISBN : 978-3-95679-324-0
EAN : 9783956793240
sold out
