EMERGING ARTIST SERIES

FEBRUARY 2020

Siavash Mousavizadeh

“Wandering in Mystery”

February 7th, 2020 - February 28th, 2020

Artist Statement: 

Photography to me is a way to tell stories, capture moments, and what I see everyday especially in my travels. I edit my photographs in a cinematic way with the colors that I feel will express my interpretation of the world around me. Photography also helps me to have a better understanding of myself, and to show me a path to self-realization in order to know the surprising things that I did not know about myself. 

My absolute favorite subject is Street Photography. To me it’s always been this incredible practice of what the light is like, showing people living their everyday life and their stories from my own perspective knowing that you’re never gonna get a same shot even at the same spot. You can never predict what’s going to happen in street photography. This is catching these lucky moments to me. 

As I travel to different States and Cities, I’ve had such an eye-opening experience to photograph these places and people through my lens. I’d like to share my experience and point of view with the world, to tell these stories and show that there’s an unbelievable world out there that many people haven’t seen.

Artist Bio:

I’m originally Persian. I moved out to USA in September 2014 in order to experience new aspects of life. Art’s always been in my family. My mother is a painter and a sculptor, and my father used to make musical instrument as a side job and used to play music, too. He also was an enthusiast photographer. Growing up in such a family, I always had this desire for visual art. I had a chance to take photos from early childhood and had different cameras. I also started learning and playing Iranian musical instruments such as Tar, Tonback, and Setar. I won the first place in the Sixth Young Musicians Festival as a Tar player. I chose Traffic Engineering as my career. I have a Master’s degree in Civil Engineering, and am a P.E. engineer in State of Virginia. 

I was fortunate enough to make a friend that intrigued a passion for traveling in me here in US. In early 2016 when my travel buddy and I decided to visit New York City, I decided to purchase my first professional camera to capture that amazing city that I’d always seen in movies and wished to see with my own eyes one day. I watched a few YouTube videos to get some information about what camera I should buy. That was when I discovered that digital photography has changed tremendously and a new generation of photographers has emerged. So I decided to join this new generation and picked up this passion where I had left off . 

I began learning photography skills and process through self taught, then I took it to the next level by taking an online Digital Photography course with Harvard University in 2017. I also started to share my photos on instagram @sia.mz as a hobby, a visual journal, and kind of a way to document my travels and what I see everyday. I also had a chance to work with Lynchburg Downtown Association and join their instagram crew to make photos for them, and do several event photography such as Get Downtown, and Deck the Hill events.