Saba Alizadeh

Born in Tehran in 1983, Saba Alizadeh is a photographer, composer and musician. He began playing the kamancheh, the Persian spike fiddle, at the age of ten, studying with Saeed Farajpouri and Kayhan Kalhor. In 2001 he joined the Hamavayan Ensemble. He holds a BA in photography from Azad University in Tehran (2008) and an MFA in music from the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts), where he studied experimental sound practices.

His work moves between image and sound. As a musician, he combines the kamancheh with electronics and modular synthesizers. He has released several albums on Karl Records in Berlin, including Scattered Memories and Temple of Hope, and founded Noise Works in Tehran, a platform for experimental and electronic music.

His series Light and Soil was shown at Silk Road Gallery and presented by the gallery at Paris Photo. In 2017 it was included in Iran, Year 38 at the Rencontres d’Arles, where Alizadeh also performed on the kamancheh in the arena. His photographs have also been exhibited in London, Moscow, Kuwait and Washington, D.C.