Tara Violet Niami
Tara Violet Niami is a New York born, Los Angeles based photographer and cinematographer. Tara received her BFA in Photography at Pratt Institute while also studying filmmaking, and then went on to get her MFA at AFI Conservatory in cinematography. The daughter of an Iranian-born independent filmmaker and film teacher, she grew up highly interested in storytelling and cinema.
Tara shoots on film both for its look, feel and for the slow precision it requires. Her evocative, moody photographs deal with themes of anxiety, isolation, vulnerability, escapism and metamorphosis. Tara's most recent series "Royal Warriors," shot in England and Wales, is her ode to the archetypes and figures of Medieval times and folklore, through a revision queer female lens.
As an Iranian-British Australian American, Tara’s multi-ethnic and multicultural perspective informs the photographic and moving images she creates and the choice of films she works on as cinematographer.