©Mehrdad Mirzaie, from the Garden Series

It is with pleasure that the jurors announce the 2026 Lenscratch Student Prize 1st Place Winner, Mehrdad Mizarie. Mizarie was selected for his project, Garden. In 2025, he received his MFA in Photography, from Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ and is currently pursuing an MA in Art History, at Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ.

The 1st Place Winner receives a $2000 cash prize, a review session with Executive Director Crista Dix, a seat at the New England Portfolio Reviews, and a family membership fromThe Griffin Museum of Photography, a review session with Executive Director Samantha Johnson of the Colorado Photographic Arts Center, a review session with Executive Director Rotem Rozental, a seat at the Exposure Reviews, and a membership from theLos Angeles Center of Photography, a $500 Gift Certificate fromFreestyle Photo, a mini exhibition on The Curated Fridge, a collection of books from St.Lucy Books, a collection of books fromKris Graves Projects, a collection of books from Zatara Press, a collection of books from Workshop Arts and Luminosity Lab, a collection of books from Radius Books, a collection of books from Deadbeat Club, a year long mentorship with Aline Smithson, a feature on Lenscratch, and a Lenscratch T-shirt and Tote. Needless to say, we are so grateful to our amazing sponsors.

Thank you to our incredible jurors for their time and energies: Aline Smithson, Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Lenscratch, Educator and Artist, Daniel George, Submissions Editor of Lenscratch, Educator and Artist, Linda Alterwitz, Art + Science Editor of Lenscratch and Artist center, Kellye Eisworth, Managing Editor of Lenscratch, Educator and Artist, Vicente Cayula, Social Media Editor of Lenscratch and Artist, Alexa Dilworth, former publishing director, senior editor, and awards director at the Center for Documentary Studies (CDS) at Duke University. Kris Graves, Director of Kris Graves Projects, photographer and publisher based in New York and London, Karen Haas,  the Lane Curator of Photographs at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Yorgos Efthymiadis, Founder of the Curated Fridge, photographer, Hamidah Glasgow, Curator and Former Director of the Center for Fine Art Photography, Fort Collins, CO, Samantha Johnston, Executive Director of the Colorado Photographic Arts Center, Alayna Pernell, Artist, Lenscratch Editor, Educator, Epiphany Knedler, Artist, Editor for Lenscratch, Educator, Curator of MidWest Nice, Jeanine Michna Bales, Beyond the Photograph Editor of Lenscratch and Artist, Jordan Tovin, Artist, winner of the 2025 Lenscratch Student Prize, Drew Leventhal, Artist and Publisher, winner of the 2022 Lenscratch Student Prize, Allie Tsubota, Artist and winner of the 2021 Lenscratch Student Prize, Raymond Thompson, Jr., Artist and Educator, winner of the 2020 Lenscratch Student Prize, Guanyu Xu, Artist and Educator, winner of the 2019 Lenscratch Student Prize, Shawn Bush, Artist and Educator, winner of the 2017 Lenscratch Student Prize
and Drew Nikonowicz, Artist, winner of the 2015 Lenscratch Student Prize.

Photography has long been a vehicle for remembrance, preserving lives that might otherwise fade from history. In Garden, that promise is both honored and challenged. Drawing on thousands of anonymous vernacular photographs from digital archives and social media, Mirzaie constructs a fragile memorial to those lost, disappeared, or silenced under decades of political repression in Iran. Suspended between archive and anti-archive, presence and absence, the work reveals how memory is shaped as much by what is erased as by what survives, asking us to consider who is remembered, who is forgotten, and who has the power to decide.

Mehrdad Mizarie is an Iranian interdisciplinary artist, assistant curator, and educator currently based in Phoenix, Arizona. His practice centers on the mental image, the politics of seeing, the politics of memory, and historical images, particularly in regions marked by censorship, state violence, and historical erasure. Working primarily with photography, archives, and alternative image-making processes, he explores how visual histories are preserved, reinterpreted, or lost, emphasizing the dialogue between bygone eras and contemporary contexts.

Mirzaie’s research extends into the history and philosophy of photography, where he examines the role of images as conduits for historical narratives and storytelling. He currently serves as Assistant Curator and Collection Assistant at Northlight Gallery, where he continues to expand his curatorial and research experience. He received his MFA in Photography from Arizona State University in 2025 and is currently pursuing an MA in Art History at ASU, with a focus on image-based art in Iran and within a broader global context.

Instagram: @mrdadmirzaie

© -, from the Garden Series

Garden

“Garden” comprises thousands of amateur photographs sourced from digital archives and social media accounts, transferred onto glass. Many of these images are manipulated, stripped of names or any contextual information. They depict individuals who lost their lives, were forcibly disappeared, or arrested due to the socio-political conditions in Iran from the Islamic Revolution of February 1979 to the present. This archive/anti-archive—an archive being a collection of photographs from digital sources that attempt to document and preserve information about these individuals—includes personal photographs from family albums or moments of everyday life, with the photographers remaining unknown. It is an anti-archive because it lacks the conventional qualities of a functional archive—it cannot serve as a reliable source of information, as it is marked by missing data, gaps, and erasures.

Within Iranian culture, the idea of a garden is deeply tied to the concept of a cemetery—a resting place where life and death coexist, and where memory is simultaneously preserved and erased. It becomes a metaphor for both life (through its vibrant, cultivated nature) and death (through the resting bodies beneath the soil), reflecting the tension between presence and absence, remembrance and forgetting.

“Garden” is not merely a place; it is a condition—a state of being where time erodes remembrance and the past dissolves. It is a dwelling, both metaphorical and literal, where memories, histories, and identities fade into obscurity—whether through deliberate political erasure or the natural passage of time. constructing a space where forgetting occurs systematically—through violent suppression, loss, or transformation. It could represent historical amnesia, censorship, personal trauma, or even a place where forgotten things gather. It is both an archive and an anti-archive. Garden reflects upon the architecture of an oppressive political system, where forgetting is not passive but actively imposed. – Mehrdad Mirzaie

©Mehrdad Mirzaie, from the Garden Series

©Mehrdad Mirzaie, from the Garden Series

©Mehrdad Mirzaie, from the Garden Series

©Mehrdad Mirzaie, from the Garden Series

©Mehrdad Mirzaie, from the Garden Series

©Mehrdad Mirzaie, from the Garden Series

©Mehrdad Mirzaie, from the Garden Series

©Mehrdad Mirzaie, from the Garden Series

©Mehrdad Mirzaie, from the Garden Series

©Mehrdad Mirzaie, from the Garden Series

©Mehrdad Mirzaie, from the Garden Series

©Mehrdad Mirzaie, from the Garden Series

©Mehrdad Mirzaie, from the Garden Series

©Mehrdad Mirzaie, from the Garden Series