About — Lightpalace

ARTIST STATEMENT

In Persian poetry, the palace of light is a motif symbolizing the house of truth. With Lightpalace, Iranian/American filmmaker, photographer, and marine scientist Dr. Shireen Rahimi captures light—as it flows through her camera lens, through water, and all of Earth’s living things—to tell stories of human/natural relations steeped in emotion. Shireen draws inspiration from the poetry of her homeland, the intricate mirror mosaic work of mid-century Iran, the movement of light through Earth’s natural prisms, and her in-depth marine anthropological research on human-ocean relations. These influences inform her practice, shedding light on the beauty of our emotional connections with the Earth, and expanding our imaginations around how we might accept, adapt, and practice the arts of living on a damaged planet.

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

Dr. Shireen Rahimi is an award-winning filmmaker, photographer, marine anthropologist, freediver, and National Geographic Explorer. Through both her creative and scientific practice, she focuses on telling the stories of people who engage with our rapidly changing planet. She received her PhD from the University of Miami Abess Center for Ecosystem Science and Policy, and her Bachelor of Science in Environmental Biology from Columbia University. Rahimi uses ethnography, photography, and film to study sites where marine nature and culture intersect. She has worked with algae fishers on the desert coast of northern Chile, coral reef communities in Cuba, and humans interacting with lionfish in the Bahamas, telling human/ocean stories that take place both below and above the water. She has published visual and journalistic work in the Miami Herald, National Geographic, and The New Tropic, and her academic work in Marine Policy. In 2020, Shireen finished her PhD and started Lightpalace Productions, a full-service video production company based in Miami, Florida.