Human-Centered Architectural Photography

For the third year running, UAE-based Deed Studio has secured the Architizer A+Award, reinforcing its status as a leading voice in architectural photography with a distinctly human focus. The 2025 Jury Award in the Architecture + Photography & Video category was presented to the studio for "The Worker and the Factory", a photographic exploration of the Shamim Polymer Factory in Iran. The project spotlights not just the industrial design of the facility, but more crucially, the lived experience of those who work within it.

The Worker and the Factory / Architect: Davood Boroojeni Office
Photo credit: Deed Studio

The Worker and the Factory / Architect: Davood Boroojeni Office
Photo credit: Deed Studio

The Worker and the Factory / Architect: Davood Boroojeni Office
Photo credit: Deed Studio

In this latest award-winning series, Deed Studio turns its lens to the Process Department of the factory, capturing how its unconventional design — formed from stark industrial materials like iron sheets — is softened by a surprisingly empathetic spatial philosophy. The factory layout includes amenities requested by workers, such as designated smoking areas, open social spaces, and even a free-range chicken coop — small yet symbolic gestures that signal a break from the cold, impersonal norms of industrial architecture.

Jadgal Elementary School
/Architect: DAAZ Office
Photo credit: Deed Studio

Jadgal Elementary School
/Architect: DAAZ Office
Photo credit: Deed Studio

Jadgal Elementary School
/Architect: DAAZ Office
Photo credit: Deed Studio

Deed Studio’s photographic approach is equally personal. By following a single worker through the space, the photographers use light, shadow, and composition to anchor the human figure at the heart of the narrative. Transparent openings and architectural rhythms are framed to highlight how space is experienced rather than just constructed. The result is not merely documentation but storytelling — elevating the worker from peripheral element to central protagonist.

The Abrahamic Family House / Architect: Adjaye Associates
Photo credit: Deed Studio

The Abrahamic Family House / Architect: Adjaye Associates
Photo credit: Deed Studio

The Worker and the Factory / Architect: Davood Boroojeni Office
Photo credit: Deed Studio

This user-centric storytelling is a hallmark of Deed Studio’s work. In 2023, the studio won the A+ Popular Choice Award for its documentation of Jadgal Elementary School in Iran, where children’s interactions animated the design intent. The following year, it earned the Jury Award for capturing the spiritual and communal essence of the Abrahamic Family House in Abu Dhabi — an interfaith complex promoting dialogue across religions.

The Worker and the Factory / Architect: Davood Boroojeni Office
Photo credit: Deed Studio

The Worker and the Factory / Architect: Davood Boroojeni Office
Photo credit: Deed Studio

The Worker and the Factory / Architect: Davood Boroojeni Office
Photo credit: Deed Studio

Co-founded in Dubai by Masih Mostajeran and Naghmeh Olfat, Deed Studio merges architectural insight with photographic artistry. Their multidisciplinary background enables them to read buildings not just as structures, but as stages for human life. Every frame is constructed with the conviction that architecture gains its true meaning through its users — a belief that has become their creative signature.

The Worker and the Factory / Architect: Davood Boroojeni Office
Photo credit: Deed Studio

The Worker and the Factory / Architect: Davood Boroojeni Office
Photo credit: Deed Studio

The Worker and the Factory / Architect: Davood Boroojeni Office
Photo credit: Deed Studio

In placing people at the center of architecture, Deed Studio continues to redefine how design is seen, felt, and understood.

Deed Studio

Deed Studio is an architectural photography studio based in Dubai, founded by Masih Mostajeran and Naghmeh Olfat. With backgrounds in architecture and photography, the founders bring a multidisciplinary vision to the studio, focusing on creating visual narratives shaped by each project’s concept, context, and users. Each assignment is approached as a distinct story to be uncovered and translated into images that communicate with clarity and intention. The studio’s work is grounded in identifying the essence of a project and adopting innovative strategies to convey its architectural and cultural significance to broader audiences.