Saeed Abdollahi
ARTIST BIO
Saeed Abdollahi is an Iranian architect and photographer exhibiting internationally and currently resides in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. He holds a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) degree from the University of Calgary and has been professionally engaged with photography as an artist and educator. His work has received critical acclaim, including the Blue FIAP Ribbon from Photo Art PRAGUE 2018 in the Czech Republic and the 3rd Prize in the series section for the “ZOL” collection at the 16th International Exhibition TULLE France 2020. In 2024, Saeed was recognized as a CBC Calgary Asian Changemaker for his contributions to social documentary photography and community storytelling.
Saeed is passionate about the social documentary genre and aims to capture the lives of marginalized communities to raise awareness about their struggles. Drawing from his experience of growing up in a historical city in Iran and later immigrating to Canada, his work engages with themes of displacement, labor, and belonging. Through visual ethnography, Saeed explores the mental and emotional conflicts experienced by immigrants in Canada, seeking to illuminate their human experiences and contribute to broader conversations around social change.
ABOUT THIS WORK
The lived experience of immigration has had profound effects on my soul and my psyche. It took several years of effort before I was able to immigrate to Canada in August 2021.
As a first-generation immigrant, I am experiencing a range of emotions, from anger and sadness to homesickness, loneliness, and hopelessness. This has prompted me to use myself as subject matter. I chose to leave my home and so feel as though I inflicted the anger and frustration and sadness of all this on myself. Ripping myself out of archive photos responds to the emotions provoked by migration and the lost years of my past life.
