Editors
Sholeh Samadani Munion – Chicago, IL, USA
Sholeh is a founder and Photography Editor of Nineteen Months and takes photos with an iPhone and a Sony A6000, and formerly with a Canon Rebel. As a child, she was a master fort builder and mud pie baker. Now she reads books, cooks, and organizes everything. You’ve probably met her at a conference somewhere. She is a certified meeting planner and owns an event planning and consulting business. She lives in the Chicago area, USA with her husband and two daughters and blogs here.
Current Contributors
Alan Mauger – Australia
Dr Alan J Mauger, retired spectral geologist. Specialised in the analysis of satellite imagery to map the earth’s natural resources. Image enhancement and manipulation are the bread and butter of the spectral geologist. The analysis of reflected light can lead to the identification of minerals in ways not readily available to the field geologist. Professionally he has been accused of having too much fun. Photography for Alan is simply a part of life. Sometimes the images are worth sharing.
Chad Mauger – Adelaide, Australia
Chad was initiated into the world of digital SLRs in 2007 and he continues to be amazed by the photographic opportunities that are presented to him.
He loves sharp lenses, time-lapse videos, and exercising his powers of observation. His portfolio is here and his Flickr page is here.
Dan Haug – Pendleton, OR, USA
Dan is a geographer who has mainly focused his career on the management and representation of geographic data. He has recently taken up photography and videography in support of his more talented wife’s writing career. Here are a couple books to which he has contributed: They Are Not Forgotten and This Small Corner of Time.
In addition, Dan has set all of the Arabic Hidden Words to music. The complete set of both digital recordings and and a PDF of chords can be found here.
Dan Mitchell – Evanston, USA
Gerardo Almada – Akka, Israel
Gerardo has participated in photography exhibitions in Uruguay and Argentina, published poetry, and participates in various cultural and devotional activities. He has a painting business in Uruguay and is currently serving at the Baha’i World Center and can be found at his Facebook page.
John Etheridge, Connecticut, USA
John says, “I’m old enough now that all I want to do is go out and play.” And he does (poorly, it’s true, but still) at cycling, snowshoeing, jogging, skiing and hiking—all activities he pursues in partnership with his wonderful and patient wife, Lyn. An engineer by training and a computer geek by trade, John is also passionate about both of his artistic pursuits, poetry at the Book of Pain and photography at the Book of Bokeh.
Jonathan Ellis, UK
Jonathan has lived abroad and traveled widely, capturing his experiences for nearly two decades. He cut his teeth on manual film cameras, learning the ins and outs of lighting, composition, and development in high school and college. Over the past few years, he has begun Light Angle Speed, a photography site and company. He uses a Sony A7iii as his main camera and a Minolta X-700 for manual art shoots. He currently resides in the UK. His website is lightanglespeed.com.
June Perkins – Brisbane, Australia
June Perkins is a multiplatform storyteller who publishes and has had published photographs, creative writing, non-fiction, ebooks and documentary in places as diverse as ABC open, journals, magazines, journals, online spaces, newspapers and anthologies. When not creating or discovering stories for exhibitions, books and films, she’s busy tutoring or mentoring others in their creativity. She often reblogs other Baha’i blogs in an online compilation Blogs by Bahais. Feel free to visit to catch up with her at PearlzDreaming or her website Gumbootspearlz.
Kris Bernard – Victoria, Australia
Kris was born in Michigan and did Fine Art degrees (major Ceramics) at Michigan State University before moving to California afterward and opening a pottery studio there. After four years living in CA, she moved again, but this time it was as a Baha’i who felt inspired by a desire to serve as a Baha’i pioneer in Southern Chile to assist with work among the Indigenous Mapuche peoples of that zone. After six years she moving on from Chile to Australia (Oz) and a new life there and happily was once again able to open a pottery studio. In the mid 1990s Kris changed career one last time and took her art background to computer based work, re-training as a Graphic Designer and then teaching it in Universities in Oz. Along the way, she came to love digital photography and all things to do with creating and processing digital art. She also became a serious bird watcher along the way in Australia and combines her love of birds with her enjoyment of photography.
Lucia Tyson – Washington DC, USA
Lucia Tyson grew up in Alabama with a love for nature and the outdoors but it wasn’t until getting her first DSLR camera 2 years ago that she started getting more serious about nature photography. She now lives in Washington, DC working at the US Baha’i Office of Public Affairs. Her Instagram is @luciarosa.photography.
Shelley Sims – Ladysmith, Canada
Shelley is a work in progress! Discovering new things to take her appreciation of creative pursuits into more of her daily life. Photography became a means to be present in the moment. Noticing the beauty and images that surround us continually. Connecting to the world around us, each other, ourselves and our true reality. Having homeschooled her kids, built a business, currently catering to her chihuahua and discovering the meaning of who we really are outside of all the labels.You can find Shelley sometimes on IG or FB.
Sholeh Olinga – Australia
Sholeh who has a background in computer programming and IT, is currently exploring Art and Graphic Design which brings alot of fulfillment especially since she also uses it to create Bahai inspired resources, that some Bahai friends have been using for their teaching and community building efforts. They are normally shared here.
When away from her responsibilities, her and her family enjoy exploring the outdoors and being immersed in nature. She loves to capture the beauty around which she occasionally shares here.
Tim Tyson – Huntsville, AL, USA
Tim Tyson is a semi-(not really)-retired journalist who worked his way through careers in radio, television, newspapers, and public affairs all the while hoping that he found time to foster a love for all things Baha’i in unison with Rosana into their resulting fine flock of fotographers and writers and supremely specialized servants.
Former Contributors
Adib Amini – Tampa, FL, USA
Adib enjoys spending his free time contributing to community development activities both in his local community and abroad. He’s pursuing a Ph.D. in environmental engineering with a focus on sustainability of drinking water and wastewater systems in both developing and developed contexts. Feel free to connect and collaborate with him through his LinkedIn.
Aimee Piper – Orange County, CA
Aimee lives in Orange County, CA and… this is her primary blog.
Aimee says “i love oranges, but i hate it when the peel gets under my nails. actually the idea of anything under my nails drives me crazy. sometimes my head and my heart exist in total conflict. this also drives me crazy. sometimes my head and my heart exist in total conflict. tomorrow i might let my heart win.”
Alisa Mappes – Chapel Hill, NC
Alisa is an Executive Assistant for the Vice Chancellor for Communications and Public Affairs at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. As a Baha’i, she serves her local community through hosting artistic prayer devotionals and thoughtful dialogues centered around the needs of the current times. She prefers to shoot still scenes that invoke feeling, and her favorite living thing to photograph is children.
Andrea Hope – Poland
Andrea Hope is an internationally-recognized performance poet, featured by The American Baha’i (U.S.A.) and The Catholic Association for Racial Justice (U.K.) and H.A.L. Publishing (CHINA). In 2012, she published her first spoken word album, Wellsprings. She is the author of the children’s poetry activity book, I Am and I Can. For more information on where you can find her teaching workshops, saying prayers, and hugging trees, check out her website.
Amy Sahba– Costa Rica
Amy says: “I love travel – and if it is by train or ferry I like it best. Family is what fills my heart. My camera is my constant companion. Costa Rica is my home, for now.” Amy blogs on Montague.
Ata Farhadi – Los Angeles, USA
Ata hasn’t started a blog yet and only recently remembered what it’s like to live in a country where Facebook access isn’t a luxury. He currently spends his time working and acting. “Whether he is an artist or not, the photographer is a joyous sensualist, for the simple reason that the eye traffics in feelings, not in thoughts.”
Bahhaj J. Hockley – Phoenix, AZ, USA
Bahhaj lives and works as an aerospace flight controls engineer in Phoenix, Arizona. He’s pursued photography as a hobby since 2016, gradually honing his skills in landscape and astrophotography in his free time. In addition to photography, his simple pleasures include reading, writing, and hiking with an overall passion for learning and exploration in general. The thirst for knowledge is what pushed his gaze to the heavens years ago and the thrill of capturing the merest fraction of its beauty and sharing it with others fuels the flames of wonder, imagination, and admiration. Feel free to contact him either through Facebook or LinkedIn.
Bobby Aazami – Sydney, Australia
Bobby’s love for the visual medium was fostered at an early age in Iran after watching his first episode of “The Six Million Dollar Man” on television. Enamored with his TV set, Bobby explored his love for the arts by trying his hand in every medium: from music production to stand up comedy, until he found contentment through the lens of a camera. He and his wife Fiona work together at Fiona + Bobby Photography.
Caitlin Johnson Castelaz – New York, USA
Caitlin is a writer, editor, and poet living in New York. Her work has been published in Chiron Review, Coal City Review, the Journal of Baha’i Studies, and elsewhere. While serving as an editor at NineteenMonths.com, she enjoyed collaborating with an international team of artists and writers to create literary projects, anthologies, web comics, and more. She is the founding editor of the literary annual, Vahid, which ran for three consecutive years. She is currently working on her next creative collaboration. Learn more about her work or subscribe to her newsletter at caitlincastelaz.com.
Caroline Monje Morales – Tampere, Finland
Caroline does a little of everything and is trying to narrow it down. She has a soft spot for wide open spaces, books, cornbread as well as kicking it with her husband and dog. She’s currently thinking about getting a ukulele.
Dan Jones – Da Nang, Vietnam
Dan Jones is a web developer by trade, and a photographer, singer and children’s class teacher by choice. Born in Canada, he spends his time roaming between there and Vietnam, recording his experiences on two blogs: Doberman Pizza and Baha’i children’s class ideas.
Dean Kalyan – Victoria, Canada
Dean is a Father-Photographer-Writer-Social Activist-Vegan-Martial Artist-Musician aspiring to apply adequate measures of situation ninjosity and authenticity to EVERY facet of life. Fascinated by the transformative power of the arts in releasing human potential, Dean has been involved with and coordinated both small and large scale art projects that have sought to cultivate positive social change. His website, his Facebook page, his Tumblr, and his Twitter.
Elika Roohi – Fairbanks, USA
Elika lives in Alaska where she studies journalism and staying warm. She likes stories, both telling them and listening to them. Elika writes regularly at her blog i am an aspiring something.
Elyor Nematov – Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan
Elyor began photography 7 years ago, whilst studying to be a graphic artist at the Artisant College in Bukhara, Uzbekistan. His first camera was a ‘Zenit.’ Elyor has since won and participated in many photo-documentary exhibitions and projects in Central Asia and Russia. Some of his work include his first personal photo exhibition ‘The Children of Bukhara. We Are Flowers of One Garden’ in Tashkent,”as well as magazine commissions like: ‘The Chief”and ‘Horses Racetrack.’
Fiona Gohari – Sydney, Australia
Fiona Gohari is one half of the dynamic photography duo, Fiona + Bobby Photography. Fiona is passionate about storytelling and documenting the inner story within her subjects. Her true muse, however, is her husband, to whom she credits for pushing her into a journey of self discovery through the visual medium.
Geoffrey Tyson – Alabama, USA
Geoffrey comes from the great American national park of Alabama. Having been born into a family of writers, journalists and photographers, he hopes, just hopes, that some of it has rubbed off.
Golriz Lucina Gundry – Oakland, USA
“i tweet. i tumblr. i flickr. i pinterest. i blog. i work for SoulPancake. i co-wrote this book.”
Jarnah Montersino – Melbourne, Australia
Jarnah is an aspiring social scientist, child rights activist and closet artist. Currently based in Melbourne, Australia, but always trying to explore new spaces and places, she has been taking photos as a means of capturing and sharing the beauty of her world.
Jeff Anderson – Minneapolis, USA
Jeff is a business strategist and turnaround expert. He is the proud father of 2 sons, Bayan and Aidan. He used to rap and do the hustle in the townships of South Africa.
Kari Carlson – Chicago, IL
Kari is insatiably curious about what happens to us, within us and between us when we create. She spends much of her time exploring these questions, while facilitating creative process experiences for adults at the Open Studio Project in Evanston, IL. When she’s not playing with paint and crayons, she’s usually producing, writing, or editing videos for nonprofits and small businesses. Her work can be found at Create of Soul.
Kat Eghdamian – Oxford, UK
Kat lives in Oxford with her beloved husband and lots of books. She spend her days reading, writing, reflecting, collaborating and conversing. All of this means she is the happiest she has ever been.
Lauren Herrmann – Chicago, USA
Lauren does a lot of things. One of them is taking pictures. Another is baking scones. Yet another is spinning large spheres of fire at the ends of two chains. The only one of these she went to school for, however, was photography. She is currently the Visual Director at Lethal Poetry, an Art Editor for Muzzle Magazine, and most recently, a photographer for Loud Loop Press. Find more of her work at her Flickr page.
Leila GT – Colorado, USA
Leila is being reassembled.
Leila S – Washington DC, USA
Leila spent a year living on the island of St. Lucia, West Indies. She has written about her service at her blog, A Light in the Sea.
Leili Towfigh – Boston, USA
Leili is an educational technologist who also works as a photographer, painter, ceramic artist and writer. She has had opportunities to take photographs on five continents. She blogs at Beyond the Picture.
Lindsay McComb – New York City, USA
Lindsay McComb is a writer, editor, and designer. She lives in Oakland, works in San Francisco, and drinks a lot of coffee. Her work can be found at lindsaymccomb.com.
Lindsey Lugsch-Tehle – Fargo, USA
Lindsey is a lover of light. With a deep affinity for all things awe-inspiring, she strives to capture moments of beauty with her paintbrush and camera lens—both languages that transcend syllables and sounds. She is the founder of Thru Beauty.
Malia Baggett – Hobart, Tasmania
Malia Baggett is a conceptual photographer whose innovative art practice often explores the connection between this life and what’s lies beyond, visually representing the ephemeral nature of our existence through constructed transitional realms between the known and the unknown. You can find her at her website.
Mark Sobhani – San Antonio, USA
Mark is the luckiest guy he knows. He has a beautiful wife, an awesome career as a photographer, and great friends. He loves jumping in photos and feels he doesn’t travel nearly as much as he should. You can see his work here.
Mehdi and Sabrina van den Bos – Melbourne, Australia
Mehdi and Sabrina are an American-Australian-Dutch-Persian couple. He shoots. She types. He sells exquisitely perfectionist prints here, and blogs here. She’s pretty voluble about their new life in London here.
Negeen Sobhani – Oklahoma, USA
Negeen has had a film or digital SLR within arm’s reach for much of the past twenty years. She, her Italian-born husband and Israeli-born children live in Oklahoma where she runs a wedding and photography business called Negeen Sobhani Photography. Stories behind the photos and new projects can be found on her blog.
Oak Ritchie – Carrboro, USA
Oak Ritchie has a Masters in Information Science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he resides with his daughter. He is the Executive Producer and primary content creator at Steady Flow, and can be found on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and Tumblr. He has a childhood fear of celery and salty liquids, and has a hard time looking clowns in the eye. He also has very sensitive teeth, and as a result, has to drink hot or cold liquids out of the side of his mouth. He considers it impolite to stare when he does this. Thank you.
Paul Blair – Pacific Northwest
Secret Mystery Guest is a 5th generation Bahá’í. His interests include writing small summary statements, taking small summary photographs, and ending sentences abruptl …. He lives in the Pacific Northwest, where companies pay him to be a technologist. He is survived by his five children and three hours of sleep.
Paul Netherwood – Haifa, Israel/London, UK
Ramin Hossaini – Windhoek, Namibia
Ramin is an entrepreneur from Namibia. You can find his photography on his Flickr page.
Ronnie Yousefzadeh Bindra – London, UK
Ronnie is a founder and former co-editor of Nineteen Months and shoots from the hip with a Nikon. Ronnie and falls asleep when he takes his socks off and is known to tweet.
Rudy Umans – Florida, USA
Rudy grew up in the Netherlands, but has been living in Miami since 1989, where he did commercial photography for Deltone clock radios, Avanti small appliances, and several importers of fancy perfumes. Later he photographed mainly landscapes with an old large wooden camera. When the digital era began he also started photographing weddings, events, and commercial stuff. Through some stock and art sites, his work is sold all over the world to book publishers, including National Geographic, web designers, ad agencies, and government agencies, to name a few. You can find him here or here.
Ryan Duly – Nairobi, Kenya
Ryan Duly is an International Development professional currently working in Nairobi, Kenya. He grew up in various African countries where the love of diversity, travel, and service was first instilled and is now exploring how these can be expressed through photography. His wife and two daughters make the journey worthwhile. His photography can be found on Instagram.
Ryan Lash – Brooklyn, USA
Ryan is a globe-trotter (which means he is homeless) and a photographer (which means he can’t draw). He likes his spaces wide and open, and likes his lenses the same way.
Sana Rezai – Chicago, USA
Sana likes the smell of Play-Doh, is a family physician, and is currently working on a book An Analysis of Selected Albums 2001-2007. At present, he resides in Chicago, and believes that conceptions shape society – and thus, conversations, art, and the like can advance society. You can find some of his other thoughts at achievingcoherence.com.
Sarah Hosney – London, UK
Sarah is Egyptian and currently lives in London, U.K. She says, “A photographer?! Never thought about it…. Suddenly I found myself carrying my camera and shooting photos till I become graduated from photography department, my Secret is Nikon. One of quotes I like ‘photography is the only language that can be understood anywhere in the world’ by Bruno Barbey.” Her website is here.
Sarah Johnson – Guam
Sarah’s father was a musician, her mother a physician. She lives on the island of Guam with her husband, son, fantastic community, and her Nikon and takes pictures every chance she can get. She blogs at Peach Sand Beach.
Shahriar Erfanian – Vancouver, Canada
Shahriar says, “Photography is my passion, love sports, traveling is my favorite thing, can’t live without music, and i always enjoy a good movie.” He can be found at 41 Stories Photography.
Shirin Marshall – Perth, Australia
Shirin is a photographer and Visual Arts graduate. Intrigued by mystery, accidence and the world of the spirit, she seeks to create photographs that function as a psychological landscape for spiritual animation, discovery and reflection. She believes that her interest in photography derives from her perception of art as a vehicle for reflection, knowledge, upliftment, change and social action. Shirin completed a Bachelor of Visual Arts and Education in Western Australia and completed an internship at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice. She can be found here and here.
Tala Rezai – Calabasas, CA
In addition to practicing law, serving mankind, and seeking creativity, Tala likes to color her life with the chaos of trouble. You can find her at her blog.
Tamila Zeinalova Nematova – Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan
Tamila got her first camera while serving in the Holy Land, where she discovered her passion for photography and art in general, and she feels it’s about time for a new one. She lives in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. More photos can be found here.
Victor Jason – Finland
Victor is not entirely comfortable talking about himself in the third person, but thinks it’s pretty cool. Easily distracted. Likes coffee. Adores his wife and daughter. At home in a studio, but happier in the wild. He currently lives in Finland and some of his photos can be found here.