interview with photographer Shokoufeh Malekkiani

As a young girl her father gave her a camera, encouraging her to capture images and scenarios by looking beyond the lens and into the grittiness of real life. Now, whilst acknowledging the help a legal background provides when working to effect change for the disadvantaged, Shokoufeh says she uses her camera to “help the underprivileged to be noticed”.  

“I'm always interested in being near the ordinary people and walking with them, through their difficulties, shoulder to shoulder,” she says.

“Law was a course where I could be touched by people’s problems so closely. However, after graduation I decided to use my legal knowledge to help people by illustrating their problems photographically. Now I am able to show these images to the broader world, especially to those who wouldn’t usually notice the plight of marginalised sectors of society.”  

Two years ago Shokoufeh held the first of her now annual photographic exhibitions of photographs depicting specific problems facing the community. She chooses orphaned children, poverty, homelessness and mental and physical illness as her focal points, hoping to raise greater awareness of these social problems.

Her first solo exhibition was held in 2006, and along with raising greater awareness of pressing social issues, Shokoufeh donated her profits to the Rahpoyan Danayi NGO to contribute toward building a school for unprivileged children. In 2007 the profits from her solo exhibition went to the Mazandaran Behzisti NGO, to help in the general provision of aid for the poor.

Shokoufeh came tenth in the ‘reclaiming traditions’ category of our Transformation photo competition with her photograph of a smiling older woman carrying handmade brooms on her head in one of northern Iran’s local bazaars.

This is not the first time her work has been awarded. The Canadian Association for Photographic Art and the Photographic Society of America are just two of the organisations to have honoured her work. In 2007 one of her photographs was in the 29th International Photo Festival in Knokke-Heist, Belgium and last year she was selected in two International competitions in the United States.

Her pictures have also graced the pages of various professional photography magazines and a photo gallery of hers was selected in the My Shot-National Geographic Magazine competition.

Central to her success is her underlying objective of “recording moments and communities that usually go unnoticed, in a bid to continue generating fresh and award winning photographs”.