Naveed Nour

The Inner Voice - April 15, 2008

There is always a voice in my head asking me what my role as an artist should be and I still don’t have an answer. Would it be different if I was a car mechanic, dentist or a librarian? All I know is that we are given a certain amount of time to live. I have come to a conclusion that I would like to leave something behind, that would matter to those who are still living. During the time we live, we encounter so many things that may or may not be relevant, but sometimes we don’t even know ourselves what was or was not important, as we lived the moment. When I create my art work I pull in resources from all my moments of life, going back to as far as I can remember. When I was working on my 12 Panels series in Malta it may have been related to Christianity but the parallels that I would find to my own life in Iran, where just too strong to ignore. Every single photograph somehow related to my own life, from childhood to the moment that I was in Malta. For a period of time I had to give up my passion to create, but it sometimes takes a long cycle for someone to come to a conclusion to decide what matters the most. Now I am back at doing what I am supposed to do and the only challenge is to find the way. Finding your path is actually the fun part of the whole process and I have no regrets.

Biography

Naveed Nour was born 1963 in Cologne Germany to Iranian parents. In 1971 he moved with his family to Iran. In 1983 Naveed entered the Photography Program at Tehran University's School of Fine Arts. While studying, he traveled throughout Iran including the war-zones during the 1980-1988 Iran/Iraq war and documented the social-economical affects of war on society. In 1985 Naveed left Iran for Ankara, Turkey where he lived and worked for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. In 1987 he moved to Ottawa Canada, where he later earned his BFA in Photography from the University of Ottawa. The same year he received recognition for his body of work at the Annual Arts Awards event from his university. In 1992 he moved to America to pursue his career in photography but ended up working in Information Technology, and later earned his Master's degree in Management of e-Commerce. As a dedicated artist Naveed has pursued his artwork independently throughout his career in technology and has kept exhibiting his work. In June 2007 he switched his career back to fine arts and together with his wife Zohreh Firouzabadian also founded PhotoEmerge, an organization that is dedicated to helping emerging photographers grow artistically while also learning how to set goals for their careers and promote themselves. Naveed is currently a lecturer at Mass College of Art and Design. He also actively curates exhibits for local and international artists in the Boston region. Parallel to all his activities he works on his art projects and as part of that he also collaborates with artists around the world. His work is being exhibited both in North America and in Europe, while it is also being collected internationally. Naveed is based in Boston, USA.