About

Biography

Mandana Ranjbar is an Iranian American visual artist, photographer, instructor, and software engineer based in Houston. Born in Tehran, she trained in software engineering at the University of Science and Technology before turning to photography. Working as a theater photographer in Tehran, she documented more than three hundred productions for Iranshahr Theater, the Iranian Artists Home, and the Fajr International Festivals before relocating to Houston, where she earned her MFA in Photography and Digital Media from the University of Houston in 2023.

Her photographs have been shown at the Blaffer Art Museum and in international group exhibitions in Iran, Rome, the United Arab Emirates, and California. Elgin Studios has presented three of her series as solo exhibitions: Woman as an Unlucky Prophet (2021), Captivity (2022), and The Color of Freedom (2023). In March 2026, her solo exhibition Choice Should Be a Human Right! was presented at Houston City College, West Loop Campus and will be presented at Houston City College, Spring Branch Campus in August 2026.

In 2022, she founded the Woman.Life.Freedom initiative at the University of Houston, where she directed and curated a collaborative response by women artists to the protests in Iran. Her teaching spans various disciplines, including Photography, Videography, Digital Media, Computer Imaging, Drawing, Art History, Art Appreciation, and Computer Science. She has taught at the University of Houston, the Tehran Municipal Institute Cultural Center, and Houston Community College, where she currently works in Studio Art. Bilingual in English and Persian, her practice moves fluidly across photography, video, mixed media, sculpture, 2D, 3D design work, and code-based art.

Artist Statement

I tell visual stories through light, composition, and multidimensional art. As a feminist conceptual artist, my work addresses the difficulties human beings face in the context of inequality, discrimination, and power. My artworks depict the inner emotions of a variety of women.

To portray their feelings about the oppression they experience, I use props and particular objects in staged photographs. I make surreal scenes that look imaginary in a created space somewhere between reality and fantasy, and express these problems symbolically. Establishing social equality is one of my driving purposes, and I aspire through my art to reach everyone.