CANDELAR FEATURE: SEPTEMBER
SEPTEMBER 2026: Vahid Valikhani
September Candelar page featuring Valikhani’s image, Untitled
Vahid Valikhani is a photographer, documentary filmmaker, and currently serves as the Director of the Beatrice M. Haggerty Gallery at the University of Dallas.
His creative practice examines environmental and social conditions across familiar and unfamiliar landscapes. Informed by a cross-cultural perspective and experiences of displacement, his work explores identity, belonging, and the political dimensions of place. His research frequently engages archival film and photography to investigate shifting cultural identities and the marginalization of disenfranchised communities, including his own.
He is the author of the monograph Nebraska, Tampa: The Return to the Streets (Tavaali Publication, 2025). Valikhani holds an M.A. in Film Studies from the University of South Florida, an M.F.A. in Photography from the University of Florida, and a B.F.A. in Photography from the Art University of Isfahan. His work has been exhibited internationally in Germany, Italy, Iran, and the United States. He currently lives and works in Dallas.
Introduced in 2022, the Candelar is a limited edition set of fine art photographic calendar cards juried through a free one-week open call. The Candelar card sets, printed in-house on Hahnemühle paper by Candela Photographic Arts, can be displayed pinned, clipped, framed, or propped.
