Anoosh Ariamehr is a socially engaged photographer, Community artist and creative writer whose practice sits at the intersection of photography, storytelling, lived experience and social participation.
With a background in journalism, writing and editorial work, he has long been interested in the relationship between individual experience and broader social realities. As his professional practice developed, photography became more than simply a visual tool for him; it became a way of listening, creating dialogue, building trust and making space for personal and collective experiences to be expressed.
Anoosh’s work often explores themes such as identity, belonging, home, journey, memory, fragmented experiences and social justice. At the centre of his approach is the question of how photography can create conditions in which people can become the authors of their own narratives and representations, rather than being spoken for by others.
“My philosophy is not to tell people’s stories, but to help them tell their own.”
Since 2023, his socially engaged photography practice has developed through his collaboration with Open Eye Gallery; a journey that began with volunteering and learning, and then progressed into professional projects, artistic commissions and artist residencies.
Along this journey, he has worked on projects including Hidden Voices, Communities of Welcome, Our Freedom: Then and Now, and the OFFSHOOT artist residency at RHS Garden Bridgewater. He has also been involved in New Faces, New Focus since 2024, continuing his work in 2026 through the new phase of the project, New Faces, New Focus: Stories We Share. These projects have formed an important part of his experience in using photography as a tool for participation, dialogue and the collaborative shaping of individual and collective narratives.
Anoosh is currently a student on the MA Socially Engaged Photography at the University of Salford. In 2025, he was selected as a finalist for Artist/Creative of the Year in the Liverpool City Region for his work on Communities of Welcome and his other artistic and socially engaged projects. In 2026, he was also selected as a finalist in the Civic Engagement category of the University of Salford’s Create Student Awards for his socially engaged projects and practice.
Across both his personal and collaborative practice, Anoosh sees photography not as a final answer, but as the beginning of a conversation. For him, the significance of an image lies not only in what it shows, but also in the relationship that is formed through the process of making it; a relationship between the photographer, the individual, the community, memory and place.
His work asks how images can hold memory, challenge fixed ideas of identity, create connections between different human experiences, and make space in which people are not simply the subjects of photographs, but active participants in the process of creating meaning.