challenging the topics and examples of creative and artistic photography in contemporary photography of iran, with a focus on 9th (1383) and 11th (1387) photo biennial

the tehran museum of contemporary art has held photo annual and biennial since 1366 and 12 exhibitions have been held so far; moreover, it is one of the most important places for presentation of photos and photographic thinking in country. ninth and eleventh iran photography biennial were similar approaches and artistic and creative photography was considered for photographers as a goal but so far no research has been conducted to study  these biennials as well as the results of these approaches in iran. the word of creative in the field of iran’s photography has very wide application and also was a considered approach for these biennials that are the most important events of photography in iran but in the contemporary era of iran artistic and creative photography has several definitions and different institutions and individuals have provided definitions for these words and creative and artistic photography refers to cases that lack  clear and objective definitions, thereby photography biennials of iran are continued and cultural event and have participants from all over the country and include very different works and perspectives. identification of the formed artistic approaches in this biennial is one of the aims of this research. this text tries to reveal the facts of photographer perception about the artistic photography over two periods of time. the need for formation of application of these words and survey of doubt and ambiguity in application of these words is another goal of this research. in this research, proposed approaches in these two periods have detected with review of photos and critiques. research methodology is descriptive and analytical. the most important results of this study include: 1. the condition for having creative approach for photos has been mentioned in the call of these  two periods; however,  no clear understanding of creative approaches has been provided nor any  specific examples can be found for it. 2. in a section of ninth biennial’s pictures, for achievement of creative vision and artistic photography, graphical methods have been used, and in the other section, simple and normal photos have been selected, also in the eleventh biennial, photographers with artistic and creative approach often have recorded pictures with attractive subject and therefore it is concluded that participants of these biennials do not know the subject of artistic and creative photography and this issue reveals both ambiguity in understanding and lack of enough knowledge in the field of definitions and examples of artistic and creative photography in iran’s photography society; thereby the need is recognized for further study and knowledge.