Mohsen Rastani (born 6 January 1958) is an Iranian photographer and photojournalist. He mainly makes photographs of people on a black-and-white basis with a white background.
Rastani was born on 6 January 1958[1] in Khorramshahr. He returned to the city in 1982 shortly after the Liberation of Khorramshahr in the Iran–Iraq War.[2] Rastani returned from Tehran, where he was studying for the entrance exams to the Faculty of Fine Arts.[2] At that point he started photography.[3]
He earned in B.A. in photography at the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Tehran in 1987.[3] He has lectured at the same institute as well.[4]
Rastani typically photographs people on a white background in black-and-white.[5] He has said it is difficult to exhibit his works in Iran due to people posing for his photos in outfits they wear at home.[2] [3] His work, amongst others, has covered the Iran–Iraq War, the Lebanese Civil War in the late 1980s and the Bosnian War in the 1990s.[2] They have amongst others been exhibited at the MAXXI in Rome, Italy.[3]
Rastani was one of the four Iranian artists elected to represent the country at the International Art Exhibition of the 2011 Venice Biennale.