Laurence Rasti (b. 1990, Switzerland) is a Swiss-Iranian visual artist working primarily with photography. She holds a BA in Photography from ECAL and an MA in Fine Arts from HEAD – Geneva. Her work explores themes of identity, visibility, and representation, often rooted in the tension between her Swiss and Iranian heritage. She questions cultural norms and gender roles, and more recently, her projects have focused on the consequences of migration and the denial of fundamental rights. Her book There Are No Homosexuals in Iran (Edition Patrick Frey, 2017) was shortlisted for the Paris Photo–Aperture First Book Award and the Rencontres d’Arles Author Book Award, and was named one of the 10 best photobooks of the year by The New York Times Magazine.
Her work has been shown internationally, including at the Musée de l’Elysée (Lausanne), Museum of Contemporary Photography (Chicago), Fotohof (Salzburg), and at festivals such as Photo Kathmandu, Athens Photo Festival, and Tokyo International Photography Festival.
In 2024, she was awarded the Neuchâtel Photographic Investigation Grant for Wall as Horizon, a multi-voiced project on incarceration and the punishment of poverty, published by Scheidegger & Spiess and presented in a solo exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts Le Locle (MBAL).
Since 2020, she has been a lecturer and head of the photography unit in the Bachelor of Visual Arts program at EDHEA – École de design et haute école d’art du Valais.
Laurence Rasti
Based in Geneva, Switzerland
hello(at)laurencerasti.ch
Published by
There Are No Homosexuals in Iran
Edition Patrick Frey
Wall as Horizon
Scheidegger & Spiess
Part of East Wing
Member of near.
Member of Visarte Genève
Co-founder of Association AF*
©2024 Laurence Rasti All rights reserved
Graphic Design & Development: Cécile + Roger
Typeface: Peak Rounded, Extraset
Education & Experience
Press & Interview
- 24heures - La jeunesse prend ses photos à l’Elysée
- RTS - Vertigo
- RTS - La puce à l’oreille
- France Inter - Regardez voir
- L’Obs - "J'ai voulu donner aux homosexuels d'Iran un visage"
- Konbini - En images : Laurence Rasti photographie les homosexuels iraniens
- CNN - Exploring homosexual identity through anonymity
- Arte - Circulation(s), le festival de la jeune photographie européenne
- Le Temps - Un Swiss Photo Award pour Laurence Rasti
2017
2015
Talk & Workshop
- Lecture during the artistic expression workshop course at the university of social work in Lausanne
- Curating shadow knowledge, Medical Borders Panel, Istituto Svizzero, Rome
- Talk Photobooks & Women, Booklette x near. at Photo Elysée
- Close readings of Medical Borders (IRAV) during the Symposium with Gemma Blackshaw,
- Mentorship with The Centre de la photographie Genève
- Workshop organized by ProHelvetia in Yangon, Myanmar
- Artist talk during Safe paces/unsafe times at Khoj International Artists Association, New Delhi, India
- Artist talk with Prasiit Sthapit, Photo Kathmandu, Nepal
- Artist talk at the Lumiere Brothers Center, Moscow, Russia
- Two months of video courses for the asylum seeker in Geneva - short film presented during FIFDH, in collaboration with Act on your future, Geneva, Switzerland
2023
2020
2019
2018
2017
Award & Shortlist
2023
2019
2018
2017
2016
2015
2012
Monography
Publication in
Past Exhibitions
- LOVE, LUST & FREEDOM, Kunst Museum Brandts, Danmark
- Swiss Design Award 2025
- Paare / Couples, Fotostiftung Schweiz
- Wall as Horizon, MBAL – Musée des Beaux-Arts Le Locle
- Medical Borders, Les Arsenaux, Sion
- Focus sur le travail social, Résidences croisées, Maison des arts du Grütli, Switzerland
- À nos amours, Musée des Confluences, Lyon
- (R)evolution Collective: Exhibition at Quartier Libre, Geneva, Switzerland
- PRÉTEXTE, CALM – Centre d’art La Meute, Lausanne, Switzerland
- Ascendance, Fondation Manuel Rivera-Ortiz, Arles
- Cøllective (R)evolution, Home of queer & feminist creatørs, Geneva, Switzerland
- Focus on the Margins, New Queer Photography, f³ – freiraum für fotografie, Berlin
-
Cabane B
Solo exhibition
Bern
-
Photo Genève Festival
Genève
-
Journées photographiques de Bienne
Biel
-
Secrets du Val de Bagnes
near. x Palp
- Fotofestival Lenzburg
-
Cortona On The Move
Italy
-
L’enquête photographique genevoise 2019
Geneva City, Switzerland
-
C’est certain, seul l’Amour sauvera le monde
With Alain Huck, Sandrine Pelletier, Laurence Rasti, Zheng Bo
Galerie C, Neuchâtel, Switzerland
-
BredaPhoto
Breda, Netherlands
-
Bourses de la Ville de Genève
Centre d'Art Contemporain Genève
-
Humanitarian Principles. Here & Now
International Museum of the Red Cross and Red Crescent,
Geneva, Switzerland -
Vis-à-Vis
Fotodocks, Festival for Contemporary Documentary Photography,
Munich, Germany -
Imago Lisboa
Lisbon, Portugal
-
Amour(s)
Arcoop Wall Project,
Geneva, Switzerland -
Exposition universel de la Raclette
Palp festival,
Bruson, Switzerland -
Solo exhibition
The Ballery,
Berlin, Germany -
Stadtprojektionen
Stadtprojektionen 3,
St. Gallen, Switzerland -
Solo exhibition
Pansurya Gallery,
Yangon, Myanmar -
Photo Kathmandu
Nepal
-
Exhibition of the Book Award at the Rencontres d’Arles
Espace Monoprix, Arles, France
-
Humanitarian Principales, Here & Now
La Nuit des images, Musée de l’Élysée,
Lausanne, Switzerland -
Photobookfest 2018
The Lumiere Brothers Center for Photography,
Moscow, Russia -
10×10 Photobooks by Women
Reading Room at the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, USA
-
Disruptive Perspectives
Museum of Contemporary, Chicago, USA
-
Disruptive Perspectives
Photoforum Pasquart, Bienne, Switzerland
-
Solo exhibition, sic!
Raum für Kunst, Lucerne, Switzerland
-
Iran Contemporary
Fotohof Art Gallery, Austria
-
From the world, with love!
Quartier General (QG), Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland
-
Magnum Photography Awards
Brighton Photo Biennial, UK
-
Festival les Photaumnales
Clérmont dans l’Oise, France
-
Daegu Photo Biennale 2016
Daegu, South Korea
-
Athens Photo Festival
Hellenic Centre for Photography, Greece
-
ReGeneration3
QUAD Galleries, Derby, UK
-
Strange Fire Collective
The Center for Fine Art Photography, Fort Collins, USA
-
Swiss Design Award
Basel, Switzerland
-
Y’a pas le feu au lac
Kunst(Zeug)Haus Rapperswil-Jona, Switzerland
-
Young European Photography
Galerie Maupetit, Marseille, France
-
Exhibition at the State Secretariat for Migration
Bern, Switzerland
-
Human Right 2015
Geneva, Switzerland
-
Prink Screen Film Festival
Brussels, Belgium
-
ReGeneration3
Museo Amparo, Puebla, Mexico
-
TIPF United Photo Industries Gallery
New York, USA
-
Tokyo International Photography Festival
Tokyo, Japan
-
Encontros da Imagem
Braga, Portugal
-
Festival Voix Off
Arles, France
-
Malmö Fotobiennal
Sweden
-
Belfast Photo Festival
Northern Ireland
-
ReGeneration3: New perspectives for photography
Musée de l’Élysée, Switzerland
-
The Smell of Dust
Sao Paulo, Brazil
-
ewz.selection Swiss Photo Award
Zurich, Switzerland
-
Boutographies
Rencontres Photographiques de Montpellier, France
-
Circulation(s), Festival for the Young European Photography
CENTQUATRE, Paris, France
-
SELECTION AUSWAHL
PhotoforumPasquArt, Bienne, Switzerland
-
L’Art se Livre
Fine Arts Museum Le Locle, Le Locle, Switzerland
-
Corso Como
ECAL photorgaphy, Shanghai, China
-
ECAL Photography
Galleria Carla Sozzani, Milan, Italy
-
Young Swiss photographers
Book and press fair, Geneva, Switzerland
-
Espace Tilt
Price of encouragement of the city of Renens with Marc Dubois, Lausanne, Switzerland
-
Savoir Faire
Ecal, Milano, Italia
-
ECAL Photography
Galerie Azzedine Alaïa, Paris, France
-
Shark eat monkeys
under the direction of Maya Rochat
Ecal, Lausanne, Switzerland
-
Junk Museum
curated by Thomas Mailender
Ecal, Lausanne, Switzerland
-
Half-Time 2013
Hall Kudelski, Ecal, Lausanne, Switzerland