Mehdi Rezaei Manesh (known as MrManesh), is an Iranian artist born in 1985، who has dedicated half of his life to photography, imagemaking, and visual storytelling, without having theoretical knowledge or formal training in these disciplines.
A graduated and professionally active in architecture, he has embarked a parallel and personal journey in visual arts, driven by his innate passion, which has yielded to create dozens of photographic series, digital illustrations, video arts, and short films among two past decades.
MrManesh’s artistic path has been shaped by an unconventional approach outside the usual frameworks and utterly based on self-thought learning. His entire body of work emerges from hands-on experimentation with basic equipment and fundamental software tools.
The only instructive reference that has influenced his visual language is cinema—particularly the poetic European cinema where filmmakers such as Angelopoulos, Tarkovsky, and Béla Tarr, have inspired his approach to composition, color treatment, and framing.
His earliest experiences in visual arts, also return back to making of several short films, which, though they brought him awards and recognition, yet mostly served as a stepping stone toward photography—a medium he found more fluid and purer than cinema in terms of artistic creation.
The other thing that sets MrManesh apart is the untouched nature of his work. As of August 2025, marking the dawn of his fifth decade of life, none of his photographs have been exhibited, published, or entered into competitions. His sole act of public disclosure before this website’s launch was sharing a handful of photos on his social media and nothing more. Despite receiving notable suggestions from various galleries, numerous recommendations about competitions or events, and endless requests for commissions, prints, and acquisitions – which all met the same response: ‘Maybe another time.
The reasons behind this self-imposed distance are too detailed to fit here. But In short, some are rooted in his critical view of the politicized structure of Iran’s art institutions, where connections often outweigh talent, and juries judge everything but the art itself.
Some others arise from his personal Attitude in dealing with art. from monastic patience during projects’ evolution to perfectionism in how and when they’re unveiled.
This intentional isolation, along with his self-taught background represents a clear stance-one that stands in stark contrast to the often pretentious and flashy art world. It is no exaggeration to say that his artistic journey is a quiet rebellion – a deliberate rejection of contemporary art’s established norms, like the need to have academic education, expensive equipment, and impressive track records in competitions and exhibitions.
This website marks the first public presentation of his work after years of private refinement. It represents a new chapter in his career which provides an opportunity to share his vision with the same principles that have guided his imaginative journey thus far…
