Shirana Shahbazi was born in Tehran in 1974. She studied photography and design at the Dortmund University of Applied Sciences and Arts, and photography at the Zurich University of the Arts. She now lives and works in Zurich. Shahbazi was awarded the London Citibank Prize in 2002 and a Swiss Government Excellence Scholarship in 2004. She also took part in the 2005 Venice Biennale.

Her work has been shown in many art institutions worldwide, including MoMA in New York (2012/2013), the Fotomuseum in Winterthur (2011), the New Museum in New York (2011), the Hammer Museum, UCLA in Los Angeles (2008), the Boijmans van Beuningen Museum in Rotterdam (2008), the Barbican in London (2007), the Centre d’art contemporain in Geneva (2005), and the Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago (2003). Her works can be seen in a number of important collections, including the Tate Modern in London, the Migros Museum in Zurich, and the National Museum of Photography in Copenhagen.