Taradji and Bollman are just two regular guys who know a few cool tricks.
Nima Taradji was born in Iran, grew up in France, and then moved to the US where he attended college in Texas. After graduation he moved to California and now resides in Chicago, Illinois. When he retired as an attorney, he decided to pick up what he wanted to do ever since he was a kid and was walking around with a plastic camera his dad had given him. Now, as a documentary photographer he pays particular attention to the cultural, social and political landscape of our society and photographs issues he finds important. He sees his camera as a tool that gives him an excuse to go places, see people and to explore the world and learn about people, issues and places with which he is unfamiliar. He views photography as a learning experience, with seemingly no end in sight. His photographs have been published in various national and international magazines and periodicals including: The Washington Post, The New York Times' Lens Blog, CNN amongst others.
Steven Bollman was born in New York City in 1961, raised in Jackson Heights, Queens and Massapequa Park, L.I. At 12 years of age, his photographic odyssey began in his cousin's darkroom. Shy but obsessively curious about people and the world around him, photography was a perfect fit allowing quiet involvement through observation. In 1983 he received his BFA from The School of Visual Arts in NYC with Julio Mitchel, who told him it was a worthless piece of paper and the best thing to do was to keep taking photos. Freelancing editorial and commercial assignments followed with work published in Aperture, U.S. News and World Report, Vanity Fair, and Newsday, among others. In 1987, he joined the photo agency Matrix covering Haiti’s Democratic elections. He has worked on photographic essays in Cuba, Haiti, Sicily, Spain, France, and the USA. He lives in Emeryville, CA.