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Ramin Samandari
Iranian-born photographer, I arrived in Odessa, Texas in 1978 at age 17, sent there by my parents in the midst of the Iranian revolution. At the time I thought I might return to my homeland in a few years with a medical degree, but then the Iran-Iraq War broke out, so I renewed my U.S. visa, eventually got a green card, and in 1990 became a U.S. citizen. A resident of San Antonio since 1988, I decided in the early ’90s to pursue my life long passion of photography. Throughout the ’90s, I exhibited mostly in non traditional venues in San Antonio and Austin. Between 2000 and 2001, I had several solo exhibitions at the University of Incarnate Word’s Center for Spirituality, the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center, Carver Cultural Art Center and the San Antonio Museum of Art. My work has been exhibited at The Blue Star Contemporary Art Museum, UTSA gallery, Southwest School of Art, Artpace, City of San Antonio Department of Culture and Creative Development and many private galleries. My work is in the permanent collection at San Antonio Museum of Art, University of Texas at San Antonio, The Tobin Center for the Performing Art and Institute of Texan Cultures.
I’ve been selected as the Artist of the Year for 2023 by San Antonio Art League and Museum.
From 1998 to 2021, my studio was located at the Blue Star Arts Complex. Since 2021, my studio is in the Lone star Art District at 107 Lone Star Blvd.
Resume (PDF)
MORE ABOUT THIS ARTIST
Artist Type: Visual Arts: Photographer
Artist Style: Visual Art: Contemporary, Documentary, Figurative, Impressionistic, Landscape/Cityscape, Narrative/Historical, Portraiture, Social Commentary
Artist Medium: Photography
Artist Statement of Work
Tell us about your work (style, approach, philosophy, subject and/or theme):
I approach the making of images as a means to document my philosophical, artistic and personal examinations of life.
Photography communicates beauty, ugliness, desire, longing, hope and fear. A photograph can illuminate events otherwise unseen and can even bring about change in human condition.
The camera sees things that are real and tangible, yet it also captures things beyond the realistic realm. By capturing an event or an emotion in an instant, it takes the viewer beyond the perceived reality.
In order to make an impact on the viewer, photographer must look past the surface to convey the emotional aspects of the subjects.
As someone who was uprooted from home and country at an early age, I often feel a sense of isolation and an outsider. This feeling of –not quite belonging- becomes evident in my images.
My concerns are human’s search for individuality, the meaning of one’s life, the means the world employs to deprive the self of its freedom in all spheres of action and expression and the means by which the self can recover this freedom.
