Biography:

“The true artists are the elements, I just photograph them.”

Not many photographers have faced sleepless nights in a car in the minus zero temperture in Alaska and seas of 30 feet just to take a photograph. Very few may described the bitter cold on the borders Iran and Iraq. Or say they have climbed Mt .McKinley almost to Death. And how about a two month journey of climbing the Andes and sharing food with an Amazonian tribe.
Banafsheh Ehtemam can. She was born in Tehran, Iran. As a child, she took many trips with her parents. It was with the simple lifestyles and cultures of people in remote areas, and the fantastic nature that surrounded them, that she found herself most fascinated with.

Governmental and societal upheaval, and the darkness which accompanied them to the land she so loved, caused her to leave Iran at the age of sixteen. In order to break the stereotype of what is expected from an Iranian women. She began traveling the roads less traveled and surrounded herself with the unfamiliar. . She took the risks of unthinkable tragedies .She began to discover the beautiful risks of invention. After all, She thought there are inseparable.
So in order to meet with the realities of life, she stood up. After that she never stopped climbing. She climbed higher than the person she grew up to become, higher than the shadow of fears, higher than the looks of other people and most important of all, higher than all familiar things and faces. Living and studying in Switzerland for several years, she moved to the US, to Boston in particular, to continue her education. School brought the discovery of the genius of Ansel Adams and Richard Avedon. Shortly thereafter, she received her first 35mm camera: a Mamiya. And her love affair with photography had just begun.

“Corporate America” paid the bills for a decade, but never nurtured her soul. As a result, all the photographs and travel experiences that she had gained over the years were getting dusty.
“To love what I do, to have it remain satisfying and challenging is very essential to me”.
At last, she decided to share her life’s passion with others, becoming a full-time freelance photographer and a guide to remote areas of the world.

Through these journeys of the physical and the spiritual, she is helped by the four languages she speaks and the panache to travel through the world as a one-woman crew.

Activities:

Self taught (mostly)- Photography courses in college.santa fe work shop-Galen powell workshop-maine workshop...

Ihave more than six shows every year,i'm represented by an art dealer,i teach nature photography part time,i'm working on a book...