Kian Kardooni is an Iranian photographer whose work focuses on the rock and metal scenes throughout the Middle East and Turkey. Raised in a country where this kind of music has long been driven underground—restricted, censored, and often silenced—he uses photography to explore not just the sound, but the persistence and spirit that keep it alive.

His work follows a scene that shifts shape across borders: tolerated in some places, hidden or disapproved in others. Within this patchwork of acceptance and resistance, Kian’s photographs celebrate the deep sense of community that forms around the music—networks of trust, creativity, and solidarity built in the margins.

He captures what happens in the spaces between: makeshift rehearsal rooms, fleeting gatherings, the quiet resilience of artists. But just as often, his lens turns to the stage—where raw emotion, sound, and light converge, and where performance becomes both release and declaration. These moments pulse with urgency, joy, and the power of being seen.

Over the past fifteen years, Kian has photographed more than 30 concerts in Iran, Turkey, the UAE, Russia, and Armenia, building a visual archive of a movement that refuses to disappear.

More than documentation, Kian’s work is a tribute. It honors not only what survives, but how it survives, the people, the passion, and the collective energy that continue to thrive in the face of constraint.