Maziyar Derakhshani is an Iranian-born photographer and an MFA candidate in Studio Art at the University of Alabama, where he also teaches digital photography. He completed his undergraduate studies in set design at the College of Fine Arts, University of Tehran.

His photographic practice emerges from lived experience and from moving between different cultural spaces. Through portraits and observational images, he pays attention to quiet moments and everyday encounters where people appear simply as themselves, outside of fixed roles or expectations.

For Derakhshani, photography is not a one-sided act but a relational process shaped by the encounter between the photographer, the subject, and the future viewer. He is interested in how people see themselves, how they are seen by others, and how photography can open a space for reflection, recognition, and shared experience beyond fixed categories.

His work has been exhibited internationally in Iran, the United States, and Europe, and is part of a major American art collection. Derakhshani is a two-time recipient of a research seed grant and received a graduate research award in 2024.