Kiana Hayeri
Visual Storyteller @ Freelancer / Based in Aurora
Kiana (b.1988) grew up in Tehran, Iran and migrated to Toronto while she was still a teenager. Faced with the challenges of adapting to a new environment, she took up photography as a way of bridging the gap in language and culture....
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Focus:
Photographer, Photojournalist, Storyteller, War, Portrait Photography, Reportage, Visual Journalist, Visual Storyteller, Visual Storytelling
Skills:
Research, Translator, Image Archiving, Digital Printing, Adobe InDesign, Photo Editing, Black & White Printing, Photojournalism, Retouching
About
Available in: Aurora
Focused on:
Photographer, Photojournalist, Storyteller, War, Portrait Photography, Reportage, Visual Journalist, Visual Storyteller, Visual Storytelling
Skilled at:
Research, Translator, Image Archiving, Digital Printing, Adobe InDesign, Photo Editing, Black & White Printing, Photojournalism, Retouching
Coverage Regions:
Asia Europe Middle East USA & Canada
Languages Spoken: English, Farsi, Dari
Years of experience: 6 to 10
HEFAT certification? yes
Kiana (b.1988) grew up in Tehran, Iran and migrated to Toronto while she was still a teenager. Faced with the challenges of adapting to a new environment, she took up photography as a way of bridging the gap in language and culture. After an incident in her personal life, while still in university, she packed her life in a backpack and started a nomadic life, searching for a place that could be called home. Her projects often explore complex topics such as migration, adolescence, identity and sexuality in war-ridden countries.
In 2020, Kiana received Tim Hetherington Visionary award for her proposed project to reveal the dangers of dilettante “hit & run” journalism. Later that year, she was named as the 6th recipient of James Foley Award for Conflict Reporting. In 2021, Kiana received the prestigious Robert Capa Gold Medal for her photographic series “Where Prison is Kind of a Freedom,” documenting the lives of Afghan women in Herat Prison. In 2022, Kiana was part of The New York Times reporting team that won The Hal Boyle Award for “The Collapse of Afghanistan” and was shortlisted under International Reporting for the Pulitzer Prize. In the same year, she was also named as the winner of Leica Oskar Barnack Award.
Kiana is a Senior TED fellow, a National Geographic Explorer grantee and a regular contributor to The New York Times and National Geographic. Follow her on Instagram (@kianahayeri) where she shares bits and pieces of daily life wherever she goes.
In 2020, Kiana received Tim Hetherington Visionary award for her proposed project to reveal the dangers of dilettante “hit & run” journalism. Later that year, she was named as the 6th recipient of James Foley Award for Conflict Reporting. In 2021, Kiana received the prestigious Robert Capa Gold Medal for her photographic series “Where Prison is Kind of a Freedom,” documenting the lives of Afghan women in Herat Prison. In 2022, Kiana was part of The New York Times reporting team that won The Hal Boyle Award for “The Collapse of Afghanistan” and was shortlisted under International Reporting for the Pulitzer Prize. In the same year, she was also named as the winner of Leica Oskar Barnack Award.
Kiana is a Senior TED fellow, a National Geographic Explorer grantee and a regular contributor to The New York Times and National Geographic. Follow her on Instagram (@kianahayeri) where she shares bits and pieces of daily life wherever she goes.