As a person who has been working on many Iranian news agencies and newspapers as a head-Journalist, a senior editor, and a photographer, I had to start nearly from scratch by attending a series of courses ranging from the history of art and postmodernism to feminism. I came across the Film and Photography Preservation and Collections Management program at TMU during my research. I have become highly interested in areas of practice and study offered and worked on at Toronto Metropolitan University. Being exposed to diverse traditions and studying in a more critical and creative environment will enhance my visual/critical thinking ability.
My name is Marzieh (Baran) Benyasin. I was born in Ahvaz, Iran, in 1991. I am an Iranian-Arab photographer, art journalist, and translator. I completed my undergraduate studies in Professional Photojournalism at the School of Media Studies in Tehran, Iran. My early research focused on middle eastern performance art, cinema, fine arts, women, and ethnic minorities -Iranian Arabs- for almost ten years.
In a program structured around creative approaches toward best practices of collection management, historiography, and industry standards, I believe this is where I will succeed and produce work to help elevate my professional reputation.
My final project plan would be to connect with the Pahlavi royal family and offer a thorough assessment of their photo collections and help them preserve their legacies by implementing an updated methodology that I will learn through the program. For that, the program will fund my project and let me use the facilities to achieve the goal. Also, when I won the “F+PPCM scholarship”, I felt confident that I could plan for my future projects. Solving my financial worries as an international student, enriching my library, and completing my photo collections in line with my final project are some of the positive effects this scholarship can have on my future. This fund was given to me by the university, which proved to be a supporter to me at the beginning, and I am proud of that, and I tried that I can use this fund to be successful in my future career.
Studying at Yeates School of Graduate Studies will be a dream come true for me, and now that I have the privilege of being admitted to this program, I will use all my strengths and make all my efforts to excel at Ryerson University.