SECOND WINNER OF RPS WALL GRANT – MAJID SAEEDI
Our second grantee for the Reminders Photography Stronghold Wall Grant has been selected and is to be awarded to Iranian photographer Majid Saeed. Congratulations!!
We plan to organize his exhibition in July, more details soon!
2ND RPS WALL GRANTEE ©MAJID SAEEDI
We will be posting comments and thoughts from each of our four judges, Svetlana Bachevanova, Marc Prüst, Manik Katyal and Eliseo Barbàra on the over 30 submissions we received in the spring of 2013. Majid Saeedi’s project, “Documenting of war victims in Afghanistan” Through the history, human achievements and progressive technology have saved lives of people, who used to die due to simple and ordinary diseases. However some sorts of progressions and achievements are being misused against humankind because they provide people with fatal weapons that can threaten and finally kill more people. Humans’ achievements have been continued since the time that people got created.
Weapons used for slaughter are wondrous, so is the number of chemical and nuclear bombs which are ready to use and destroy any part of the world. Humankind is sympathetic but at the same time he is the cruelest creature in the world.
Afghanistan has been dealing with war since 50 years ago. Sometimes with countries attacked it and sometimes with civil wars. In 1833 the first war between Afghanistan and Britain began in the southern part of Helmand Valley. Since then, the wars between the Soviet and Afghanistan and also the civil wars are continuing.
Intentionally or locally, the Afghans are people of war and bloodshed. They are suffering from some serious traumas and hurt which take a lot of years to be healed. More than one decade passed with war between Afghans, cooperating with advanced countries, and radical Taliban. Unfortunately, the consequences of such wars are being more visible day after day.
2ND RPS WALL GRANTEE ©MAJID SAEEDI
Majid Saeedi’s Biography:
is an Iranian documentary photographer. He has photographed Middle East with a focus on the humanitarian aspect for the past two decades. Majid also takes a special interest in telling the untold stories of social issues and social injustice through his photos. Majid was born and raised in Tehran. He started photography at the age of sixteen and when he turned eighteen, He went to Iran Iraq border to take photos of the refugees.
Majid has managed photography department of various news agencies in Iran and led so many key projects for over 15 years . One of Maid’s interests is to do street photography to portray citizens and ordinary life. When Majid is not working, he likes to teach photography to students and mentor young photographers.
Majid has won numerous prominent photography awards from around the world. For the past eight years, Majid has received the title of best photographer of Iran. His work has been published in international press such as Times, Spiegel, Life, New York Times, Washington Post, Washington Times, Time Magazine and various Middle Eastern publications and online agencies. Majid has travelled to many countries in the Middle East and photographed the injustice as well as the atrocities. His recent work displayed the images of land-mines victims in Afghanistan.
Majid has won a lot of prizes amongst the recent ones are the 2012 R.F. Kennedy Award, 2011 US Lucie Award, 2010 UNICEF award, 2011& 2013 first prize from China International Press Award, 2010 Henri Nannen Award and 2013 World press photo WPP.