Ashkan Sahihi (b. Tehran, 1963) is a photographer known for his unique work: prisoners on death row, hip hoppers, musicians, writers, female soldiers, explorations of the facial expressions of people under the influence of various drugs they are trying for the first time. Sahihi’s family left Iran for Germany when he was seven; he moved to New York in 1987 and subsequently created photographs for leading publications including the weekend magazines of Die Zeit and Süddeutsche Zeitung, Spiegel and GEO, the New York Times Magazine, the New Yorker, and Vogue. More recently, he has focused his energies on standalone conceptual series. His work was presented at New York’s Andrea Rosen Gallery in 2000 and featured in solo and group shows at MoMA PS1 in New York, the Berlin Academy of Arts, Macro in Rome, and elsewhere.

Ashkan Sahihi’s most recent work, reproduced in its entirety in this book, is a portrait of Berlin comprising 375 photographs of women living in Berlin grouped by thirty-five categories such as professions, age brackets, lifestyles, social strata. Each photograph is accompanied by a brief questionnaire the sitters completed in writing. Taken together, the portraits represent a cautious exploration of Berlin, an attempt to capture a moment in the city’s life in a dense description. With essays by Kimberly Bradley as well as Thomas Hüsken and Olin Roenpage.