Born in Tehran right after the 1979 Islamic revolution, Golnaz Shahmirzadi channels her emotional experience into a fine art photography project that explores that identity conflict that young Iranian men face living in the United States.

“This series of environmental portraits illustrates the confusion and isolation that these men are struggling to overcome after they and their families fled from Iran’s revolution in hope of a better future. I found that this migration although for them, was initially an opportunity for a better life, but struggling to adjust to western society has affected both the immigrant parents and their children. Of these immigrant men, some have never been to Iran, but their upbringing with conflicts in cultural diversity has more so become a trap where their dreams and future are placed in transit.

With the images, I am showing the emptiness and loss of hope that some of these men have experience after having to adjust to western society while still having to deal with their eastern cultural background.”