Artist Statement
Working from an autobiographical framework, my work examines themes of ritual, grief, memory, and the complexities surrounding the meaning of home. By combining archival materials with documentary storytelling in still and moving images, I build layered narratives exploring how personal and cultural loss shape a fragmented sense of self. In crafting photographs that trace a history of displacement and experiences of familial estrangement, a dialogue emerges between the past, present and future. From these images, realities of separation surface—echoing emotional landscapes shaped by migration and unfolding tales that address the malleable, nonlinear nature of generational memory.
Drawing on the narrative structures of Persian literature and Iranian New Wave Cinema, the work uses allegory and symbolism as a language to emphasize details that reveal an underlying story existing beyond the frame. Within the topography of the work, elements of the natural world and ritualistic objects become referential to the visual language of Iranian mysticism and cultural traditions. Color and light act as punctuation for slow-moving, lyrical stanzas, while flora and fauna call to cycles of resistance, rebirth, and renewal. Traditional and historical processing techniques enable the photographic object to explore the passage of time as a tangible experience. Creating images with a personal and cultural symbology in mind, my work is a means of storytelling, folklore and method of spiritual devotion.
Biography
Shaina Nasrin Nyman is an Iranian-American photographer, filmmaker, visual artist and educator working in Philadelphia, PA. They hold a BFA from The University of the Arts and are currently pursuing their MFA at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Nyman’s work has been included in exhibitions in Philadelphia, PA; Washington, D.C.; Houston, TX; and Atlanta, GA, among others. Their work has been funded by the Penn Treaty Special Services District. Recently, they were awarded a fellowship to attend Penland School of Craft’s Winter Residency Program in January 2025. Nyman is a member of Batikh Collective, a pop-up cinema and gallery in Philadelphia that centers SWANA (Southwest Asian North African) women and queer artists. They currently work as a Photography Lab Technician at Haverford College, where they manage the photography facilities and instruct workshops on the craft of digital and analog photography.
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