Ashkan Shabani is an Iranian documentary photographer, visual storyteller, and video journalist based in Germany. His work focuses on human rights, migration, identity, political extremism, and communities living under social and political pressure.
He began photographing as a teenager and entered professional photojournalism in 2016, working first with the local news agency DiyarMirza before joining the Iranian Students News Agency in 2017. Since then, he has worked as a photographer, photo editor, assistant photo editor, staff photographer, and freelance journalist, contributing to national and international media.
Shabani has documented LGBTQ+ lives in the MENA region, protest movements in Iran, migration and exile, elections, natural disasters, and the rise of far-right extremism in Germany. His recent long-term project, The Quiet Rise, investigates the normalization of neo-Nazism and right-wing extremism in Germany through documentary photography, field reporting, and investigative access.
His work has been published and featured by outlets including TIME, The Atlantic, Financial Times, GEO, ZEIT, Handelsblatt, Corriere della Sera, Daily Mirror, DW, ZDF, NTV, Science Magazine, NRC, Welt am Sonntag, and others. In 2025, The Quiet Rise was featured on ZDF’s aspekte and published in ZEIT Dossier.
His work has received international recognition, including the ZEKE Award 2021, recognition in the LensCulture Portrait Awards 2022, nomination for the Joop Swart Masterclass by World Press Photo, nomination for the FotoForm Book Award, selection for the Hamburg Portfolio Review 2025, and inclusion in Der Greif Issue 18: Tomorrow is Today, curated by Hank Willis Thomas. His work has been exhibited internationally, including at Photoville in New York, Bridge Gallery in Massachusetts, Matadero Madrid, Paris Photo, Kampnagel Hamburg, FREELENS Gallery Hamburg, Kunstraum Universität Lüneburg, GWA St. Pauli, and Kadıköy Art in Istanbul.
He has received scholarships from VII Academy and Magnum Photos and is a member of Diversify Photo and Native Agency.
