Zahra Babaei (b. 1996 Tehran) is a transdisciplinary artist based in Rochester, NY. In her work, Babaei explores the materiality of the invisible and the gendered politics of veiling, blending video, performance, and photography to look at the limits of visuality. Her practice moves from ghost-making to inhabiting the ghost, investigating how fabric mediates the body, carries tropes and stereotypes, and stretches across identity politics as well as geographic and historical boundaries..

Babaei holds a BA in Photography from Tehran University of Art and recently earned her MFA in Photography and Related Media from the Rochester Institute of Technology. She will begin her PhD in Visual and Cultural Studies at the University of Rochester in Fall 2025.

She has worked as a rare book archive assistant at the Cary Graphic Arts Collection at the Rochester Institute of Technology. In 2024, Zahra served as a teaching assistant for a Magnum workshop. Her work has been published in PhMuseum and IMA Magazine, and exhibited at the Bazar Art Book Fair, Delgosha Gallery, and Tropic Bound 2025. Her artist books are held in the special collections of Tufts University, SCAD, and RIT.