2025 Artist in Residence
Pooya Nebei
Pooya Nebei is a commercial portrait and fashion photographer. He embraces a rich, moody, and sensual representation of the drama and energy of everyday life.
The 2025 Project: Titled, “An Old Reverie,“ the project explores the myriad struggles that individuals and families face as they write their stories in a foreign land. An immigrant himself, Pooya has always been fascinated by the profound changes one must navigate to successfully adjust to a new country and culture.
Projections
In “An Old Reverie,” Pooya explores the transformative journey of recent immigrants to Canada, capturing individuals and families who have arrived within the past three years. Each subject is photographed in their home or studio space with images from their homeland projected upon them inverted, symbolizing how displacement has fundamentally altered their memories and existence.
These portraits reveal immigration not merely as geographic relocation but as profound personal metamorphosis. The upside-down projections of past lives illustrate how personal history is simultaneously preserved and transformed through migration, challenging viewers to witness this journey as an odyssey of survival, adaptation, and resilience.
video
Each portrait comes alive through an intimate video interview where subjects share their journey in their own words. The collection comes together in the 12th video featuring teach participant offering heartfelt advice in their native or preferred language to loved ones considering immigration.
What emerges consistently across diverse origins is how family separation and language barriers form the core of immigrants’ struggles.
— Pooya Nebei