My name is Rita Rahimi, formerly known as Ramin Rahimi. PASSION is a series of digital portraits created during a long period of denial regarding my transgender identity.

I was born in the islamic republic of Iran, within a system of enforced gender segregation and rigid Islamic roles. For twelve years, I attended an all-boys school where my head was shaved and my body and behavior were disciplined to conform to the image of a heterosexual male. Identity was not something to explore. It was something to suppress.

Throughout these years, I carried a deep, unspoken connection to femininity. Unable to articulate it openly, I turned inward. The digital canvas became the only place where my thoughts, desires, and emotions could exist without punishment.

The works in PASSION depict idealized female figures, rendered with precise anatomy, controlled realism, and a restrained color palette. These visual choices were not stylistic trends, but symptoms of restraint. They reflect the tension, control, and longing that defined my life at the time.

Only years later was I able to recognize these images for what they truly were: self-portraits. Each figure was a fragment of a self I could not yet claim, a quiet insistence from my subconscious demanding recognition. Creating them helped me confront extreme denial, dismantle internalized fear, and begin accepting my true gender identity.

'PASSION' is a testament to the power of art as a conduit for subconscious inspiration and self-realization.