“My site photomontage is the most important dialogue I have with the world around me.” —Kouladjie

Shirin Kouladjie (aka S. M. Moalie) was born in Tehran, Iran, where she studied Mathematics. At the age of 18, she moved to France, “I was in the third year of medical school in France, when I decided I wanted to become an artist,” states Shirin. Coinciding with another cultural move to Canada, she enrolled in the Art College in Toronto in pursue of her artistic passion. It wasn't until Shirin encountered the film department in College, did she find great interest in the course. She spent two years working with “Aaton” film cameras, “Steinbeck” 16 mm film editing machines, and optical printers. In 1997, she began working with computers which suited her mathematics background. With all the traveling and various fields of studies, Shirin felt the lack of communication with an audience (i.e. artist to artwork to viewer), which brought her closer to the Internet world. An outlet, which allowed her to get in touch with a larger audience, and share her unique talent of creating photomontage pieces.

“Photomontage - a composite photographic image made either by pasting together individual prints or parts of prints, by successively exposing individual images onto a single paper, or by exposing the component images simultaneously through superimposed negatives.”

Shirin lived in New York for three years. During that time, she showcased her photomontage work in the “Bronx Museum,” and the “Thread Waxing Space.” In December 1998, she launched her first online project called Photomontage.com. An exhibit of her own mixed-media artwork. Consequently, Shirin began working with Flash medium, “I started using it to show my collages and then I became more interested in its interactive possibilities.” Her site garnered features at “Shock, Site of the Day,” “A list Apart,” “Yahoo!, Site of the Day,” and “AltaVista, Site of the Day.”

Shirin’s photo collages are “a journey that makes her life worth living for.” When she begins working on a collage, her message is clear, but the way to translate it through pictures is not. Thus making her search for images for several days. Until finding new pieces that sometimes change the perception of the initial idea, and overall, become a learning experience of personal discovery. As a result of the research, she has much material, and feels the responsibility as an artist to give images a “voice.”

She has been greatly influenced by artists and filmmakers such Joseph Cornell, Joseph Beuys, John Waters, Stanley Kubrick, David Lynch, Almodovar, and Woody Allen. However, her style is focused on a consistent look of 1950's imagery. Shirin admits to enjoying artwork of that era, “Everything seemed safe and well defined back then.”