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Shantia Zaker-Ameli sees geography and history, not just as memory, but as contexts that engender memory and certain elements of identity, and uses them as the main themes of his paintings. However, what is social about his paintings is not the obvious historical and geographical references, but the painter's free expression in depicting them and the message conveyed to viewers.

His liberal use of colors to reproduce historical black and white photographs, not to make them more attractive – like the new trend with old motion pictures – but to criticize an interpretation of history or tradition that claims to be established or exclusive in order to garner credibility and authority. At the same time, Shantia Zaker-Ameli's deconstruction goes beyond criticizing the formality of history and geography, and puts forward the question his skill as an artist raises so bluntly: the question how historical a phenomenon might be and also claim to represent identity. The crowded schoolyard where our experiences recur on a daily basis, the historical Sio-se-pol bridge, a trip to Yazd or Kashan with a group of friends, the construction that was once a military school, or photograph of a former government's cabinet, which do we consider to be of greater historical significance and which plays a more meaningful role in shaping our present identity? Contemporary art owes its significance and appeal to such questions.