The Interior, 20 September 2013 - PIX

Transcription

the interior
volume 8 . august 2013
A photography quarterly
THE
IRAN
ISSUE
the interior
2
The Labyrinth • Ehsan Rasoulof
3
From the Editor: ‘What is Living? I Don’t Know’ • Rahaab Allana
Mehdi Moghimnejad
The Iranian manifestation of ‘staged
The history of photography in Iran has
genre, is a ‘behaviour’ of photography that
established its lineage with the documentary
allows a free interface with the remaking of a
form. As a powerful tool in the hands of
picture, that was originally shot in documentary
every citizen, the medium has functioned
mode. Accordingly, a public atmosphere is
as a mirror in a country with a unique
reconditioned to a private order.
geopolitical condition – the desire to be a
From the series
By an Eye-Witness
by Azadeh Akhlaghi
Ayatollah Mahmoud
Taleghani,
10 September 1979,
Tehran
2012
EDITORIAL
Guest Writer’s Note: Exposure and Privacy • Mehdi Moghimnejad
imagery, a renewed form of the tableau.
photography’ as a unique practice-oriented
Me, as the other prefers by Azadeh Akhlaghi
Tehran, 2008
Digital
1
Exposure and Privacy
11 The ‘Other’ Reality • Tanvi Mishra
Such a tendency in Iranian photography,
sovereign republic through a transparent and
a term I use specifically to identify with the
accountable system – the failing of which
resident practitioners of the medium, is
marks the beginning of our resistance through
occasioned by international developments in
popular media. During the last decade, without
new media areas, in which conceptual formats
any critical change in our socio-political
have taken a precedence. Our particular
circumstances, photography has undergone a
blending of digital morphing and fine art has
process of its own conditioning – a situation
managed to underscore and emphasise an
in which there is a tendency towards ‘staged’
intellectual frontier: that of the image as a
16 Somewhere Between • Arunima Singh/LUCIDA
FEATURES
18 Kaveh Baghdadchi
Text by Sara Reyhani
24 30 36 40
50 Arash Fesharaki
Poem by Meena Kandasamy
Babak Kazemi
Text by Rahul Soni
Dariush Kiani
Poems by Deepankar Khiwani
Mahdieh Mirhabibi
Ata Mohammadi
Special Feature:
Text by Saleh Tasbihi
Primary sponsor
with support from
56Reza Nadji
Text by Azadeh Akhlaghi
62 Ali Nadjian & Ramyar Manouchehrzadeh
Text by Newsha Tavakolian
66 Mehrdad Asgari Tari
Text by Tooraj Kamenehzadeh
72 Special Feature: Majid Saeedi
84 Nikoo Tarkhani
Poem by Monica Mody
90Gholam Reza Yazdani
Text by Mehrdad Afsari
With participation from
Text © the authors. Photographs © the photographers. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form without prior permission.
PIX is a proprietorship of Rahaab Allana. All issues of PIX may be downloaded at www.pixquarterly.in
Editor: Rahaab Allana. Photo editorial: Tanvi Mishra, LUCIDA, Kaushik Ramaswamy. Editorial: Nandita Jaishankar. Special Assistance: Reza Karfar
Design and Layout: Arati Devasher, www.aratidevasher.com. Printing: Naveen Printers, www.naveenprinters.com
Front Cover: Alice in the Land of Iran by Babak Kazemi, Tehran, 2011, Digital.
E d i t o r i a l | 3
potent metaphor and private message.
identities and forlorn people wandering in a
Such an achievement in emerging countries like
world of chaos, trying to grapple with their
Iran, where the current generation lays great
condition as subjects with equal rights.
emphasis on contemporary practice as a bridge
Uneasy with the predicaments that prevail, they
to the outside world –has consequences within
act from the periphery, relentless in their pursuit
the country which are difficult to envision,
of integration, trying to undo the vagaries of
preempt or even control.
their sequestered lives, and the recklessness
This tendency towards the staged format,
of the social, economic, political and cultural
then also points to state enforced restrictions
predicament. In this labyrinth of dreams and
and artistic freedom, and hence the artists’
divisions, we in Iran try to find meaning and
commitment as a reactionary voice. For some,
sustenance in a time of crisis and calamity.
the presence of professional photographers
The works of these selected artists mark a
in urban spaces has stirred resentment and
situation mired by forces pulling in opposite
morphed the very sense of an active ‘photo
directions – they animate the legitimate anxieties
journalism’ into a taboo, i.e. something that is
of a contemporary generation, the depth of their
practiced with trepidation. The photographer
distresses – yet also show the capacity of a people
then is not merely a reporter of realities, but
to outlive their fears and embrace their ideologies
a prism or a filter through which his/her ideas
and hopes. In a metaphorical sense, they pass from
may be refracted, and his aesthetic, explored.
the exterior to the interior, from a public miasma to
This is where Iranian society has a an ephemeral
a private universe. In doing so, the photographers
understanding of itself, incessantly experiencing
expose the international viewer to hidden tensions
the cultural gap between public and private
emanating from the interior, and hence, to the
spaces. This gap has given birth to various
duality embraced by those living within. They are
types of subcultures, casting its influence over
constrained to hide the truth – that they cannot
ideology, politics and gender-based studies,
voice their demands freely – and must learn to live
and double entendre situation that leaves the
‘What is Living? I don’t know’
escaping the fetters of conventionality and
within the invisible confines of the state, or bear
artist in the shaky hands of binaries and tensions:
Rahaab Allana, Editor
experiencing a freedom of expression.
its consequences.
subject with object, viewer with viewed, finished
This issue of PIX provides a glimpse of these
prospects or positions – a familiarity with the
odds, the artist once again becomes entangled
motifs that decorate Iranian photographic culture
in a power-play, one that needs more time
in which conflict is converted into creativity. And
to galvanise a resistance in order to have a
this, I feel, is the true purpose of art in the present.
cumulative effect on the system as a whole.
The resistance becomes a performance act, a
The Labyrinth
satirical situation wherein to show what he sees
Ehsan Rasoulof, Mohsen Gallery
and to say what he wants, the artist stammers,
The ledger of images presented here is bound
trying to communicate within an ambiguous
by the norms, boundaries and paradoxes that
show-and-tell. In an effort to surmount the
underlie works produced in an environment of
stereotypes created of themselves they fall into
uncertainty. There is a calculated depiction of
the same trap, another stereotype of the artist
halfway spaces, intermixed cultures, fragmented
struggling against the odds. It is a complicated
4 | P I X
and fragmentary, right or wrong.
However, in an effort to prevail against the
This is how the collection of photos and text
From the series
By an Eye-Witness by
Azadeh Akhlaghi
Jahangir Khan Sure-e
Esrafil, Nasrollah Malekal-Motekallemin,
24 June 1908, Tehran,
2012
Pages 4 - 6
Marzieh Ahmadi Oskuie,
26 April 1974, Tehran,
2012
Photographer Reza Nadji shoots an abandoned
rooftop in Tehran, and the wall he captures bears an
urgent scribble – What is living: I don't know. Perhaps
come together to unanimously articulate how
in Iran, as a local proverb claims, doubt is the key
the vageries of politics are also layered with
to knowledge. As is the case with life too, this idea
contradictions; a narrative emerging from the
casts an unassuming air of certainty with regard to
labyrinth of paradoxes, and perhaps an allegory
Iran’s art practice. At once riddled with a sense of
to the infinite structures of coercion that lead us
amnesia, shock, and frustration and finally hope –
in a spiral of incidents and accidents. Here again,
what you see here, is not what you get.
the photographer strives to escape the cyclical
While in Tehran, I realised that the name of
ways and trappings of the world, but manages
the Hotel (Ferdowsi) we were staying at was also
invariably to explore its depths further and
the name of the street on which one of the most
further. To make sense of the labyrinth, one must
renowned photo studios of Iran operated. It was
confront the disorder.
the studio of Antoine Sevruguin (1830-1933),
From the series Tehran
by Reza Nadji
Rooftop of a Building on
Vali-ye-Asr, Kavusiyeh
Tehran, 2007-08
Analog large format 4x5
Pages 8-9
From the series By an
Eye-Witness by Azadeh Akhlaghi
Mehdi Bakeri, 14 February 1985,
Majnoon Islan, Iran, 2012
a diplomat of Russian descent. His images
seven thousand images – were destroyed.
are inscribed within a larger ethnographic
In an attempt to modernise Iran, the Shah
enterprise and Oriental photography trope,
confiscated several others in subsequent
looking at occupations and ‘types’ described
years, and today, only a tenth of the original
as ‘Persian images’ in order to pander to the
collection survives in private hands.
tastes of the westerners in the late 19th
If history has proven that it repeats
century. Sadly, after an Uprising in 1908,
itself over time, perhaps at a glance, most
the entire street was bombed and most
of the interventions in photography being
of his photo collection – allegedly over
made in Iran seem to be an affectation of
photographer and the geo-political realm of his
art as an object of resistance. Here the body of
evidence that the images represent suggests that
we are all in tune with what the problem of seeing
might be – it may be the inability to look beyond
what is printed. As Iran elects a new leader for the
country, one may retun again to the question posed
in Reza's image. The search for answers in Iran, as
well as this issue, is relentless.
the ‘other’ reality
Tanvi Mishra
The dramatic impact of images in Iran is contingent
on their unique melding of artistic intent and political
commentary. As a first time visitor, something that
immediately struck me while travelling through
the streets of Tehran were the large scale visuals
of printed hoardings running along the height and
length of buildings. At first it almost seemed to
be a way of creating a public art forum within a
neighbourhood by using property as a surface for
rousing social consciousness. But as I traversed from
the outskirts towards the centre of the city, the
purpose of this imagery seemed to get gradually
clearer. Some of the gigantic images are of Ayatollah,
or those of the shaheed, martyrs who have lost their
lives in battle. Their sheer size and conspicuous
placement along the main corridors of traffic,
demands a constant acknowledgement of their
The complication or flux in Iranian identity is
part of a network that is relentless in its pursuit of
overbearing presence. To an outsider, such as myself,
bereavement, awe and inspiration. Photography
a problem with the reality of being exiled within
exposing, challenging and reassessing the present
these images present a telling first impression.
in Iran then is not only about a stylistic strategy
the country itself, having the means of a citizen
that unfolds over time – and neither an image of
yet not enjoying the full extent of the rights that
something present – rather, it is a commitment
come with it. This conundrum has led to another
to a forceful encounter with the absence of ‘truth’.
kind of practitioner in photography – that of the
To then pose the question, can we measure the
‘photographer thinker’. In a very measured way,
potency of photography’s role in Iran or the range
most of the photographers in this issue position
of its implications without knowing how it has
themselves as commentators on the state of the
been conditioned culturally? What do we actually
art vis-a-vis the rights of sovereignty and choice.
see in them and what are their predecessors?
Photography does not exist as art alone, rather it is
political instability, arising in themes of isolation,
12 | P I X
Pages 12-13 :
From the series
By an Eye-Witness
by Azadeh Akhlaghi,
Mirzadeh Eshghi,
3 July,1924, Tehran,
2012
From the series
By an Eye-Witness by
Azadeh Akhlaghi
Azar Shariat Razavi,
Mostafa Bozorgnia,
Ahmad Ghandchi, 7
December 1953,
Faculty of Engineering,
Tehran University, Tehran
2012
by letting the world in – into their private lives,
their homes in order to tell the truth.
The unfettered truth, however, is a metaphor, a
For a country that has had a rich history of
photography, ranging back to the Qajar era in the
early 19th century, Azadeh Akhlaghiin the series
moment in which images resonate with unintended
‘By an Eye-Witness’ provides visual references to
meanings, or the ‘obtruse’ as Roland Barthes
moments in Iran’s history that till now only existed
suggested in opposition to the ‘obvious’.The world
in eyewitness records, news reports or most strongly
of images created and destroyed perhaps, arises
in the collective memory of the people. Since no
from the virtual motion of a pendulum between
previous public photographic record existed for
two aspects – swinging between the eye of the
these incidents, Azadeh’s meticulous recreations
of acts of state or state-induced violence help in
providing an almost hyper-real visual, not only to
the memory of the resident viewer but also to
the visitor. Her haunting images of death – be it
tragic deaths, assassinations, tortures or suicides
– present a unique combination of fabrication and
fact, through a temporal melding of photography
and history. For people viewing these images, her
visuals become surreal incarnations of the actual
event, further emphasised by Akhlaghi’s disclaimer
that these are ‘her’ perspective(s) on history,
justified by her presence in each photograph as
a silent spectator, anterior to the developments
occurring within the image itself.
The strong presence of staged imagery in
contemporary Iranian photography makes me
think about how the craft of image-making reacts
and moulds itself to its concurrent socio-political
scenarios. For instance, Newsha Tavakolian, one of
Iran’s most celebrated photographers, started out
her career as a photojournalist covering national
and international news for local as well as reputed
Amirali Ghasemi in his work ‘Party/Tehran
international publications, but has presently decided
Remixed’, shows interior scenes of ‘unsanctioned’
on redefining the terms of her engagement due to
parties in Iran, with young urban Iranians socialising,
external changes. The tense political scenario after
as they would in any other country, with women
the elections of 2009 and the resulting restrictive
wearing dresses and the party goers/protagonists
impact on journalists’ work, eventually led Newsha
indulging in a drink, a dance or a cigarette. Though a
to embrace art photography or more specifically
seemingly innocuous subject, his images blank out
staged portraiture. She then produced a series of
any areas of exposed skin on the subjects, so as to
portraits of female Iranian singers in a body of work
protect their identity. The work, by this very nature,
titled ‘Listen’. Her work addressed the issue of the
is typical of being produced in Iran and is a poignant
ban on female Iranian singers trying to enter the
commentary on the current situation and lack of
profession independently or sing as solo artists.
opportunity and freedom for the Iranian youth.
What cannot be documented in the real world,
Babak Kazemi’s image, from his series ‘Alice in the
may be reconstructed through fiction, though
land of Iran’, shows a young girl floating over Tehran
always drawing inspiration from real time events
with a suitcase in her hand. The image signifies
and issues. As Rose Issa, editor of the book Iran
the desires of the Iranian youth to travel to places
Photography Now says, the line between reality and
around the world so as to seek better opportunities
fiction is blurred and they are exploring a new realm
– but as the girl depicted seems to be unconscious,
of ‘real fiction’.
the assumption is that this is a dream.
16 | P I X
From the series Listen
by Newsha Tavakolian,
Portrait of Sahar Lotfi,
Tehran, 2011,
Medium Format Film.
From the Tehran Remixed
- Party series by
Amirali Ghasemi,
Untitled, 2006,
Digital
The constructed images by the artists are a
depiction of the schizophrenically different life
that most Iranians lead in the confines of their
– imagined or remembered – offers us a view that
we might otherwise miss.
But the reverse is also true –in the works of
homes as opposed to their public identity. Perhaps
Babak Kazemi, we are able to visually relive the
it is the only photographic record of the ‘interior’,
legend of Shirin and Farhad, a story of unrequited
that alternate reality which could signify the desire
love. Through such photographs, one moves
to be the mainstream. These fictitious narratives,
into an alternative existence, a world shaped by
drawn from the real world, may in time constitute
constructed realities, which at times are more
an archive of images that may be the most telling
symbolic than reality itself, perhaps particularly
and truthful accounts of the current situation.
when looking at the legend as a metaphor for a
From the series Listen
by Newsha Tavakolian,
Imaginary Dream CD
Covers, Tehran, 2011,
Medium Format Film.
identities are with the past as well as with shaping
between the lines of absolute categorisation, and
the future. In a country like Iran that has a rich
makes these art works, a poignant marker of a
tapestry of culture but also a marked conflict with
moment of transition.
itself, the interaction of different identities exists
specifically Iranian context. As the famous 20th
Somewhere Between
century English photographer Tony Ray-Jones
Arunima Singh/LUCIDA
observed, – “Photography can be a mirror and
What defines me? Where do I belong? Who am I?
reflect life as it is, but I also think that perhaps it is
Posing these questions helps us define our
possible to walk like Alice, through a looking-glass,
concept of self, comprising various overlapping
and find another kind of world with the camera.”
identities. These questions morph our sense of
Such constructed realities are important as
self by challenging fundamental paradigms of
they convey the complexities of trying situations
identity or identities that we create for ourselves.
without literally alluding to them; Iran is a land of
Such identities not only define us but also define
inexplicable cultural beauty and rich history, but
our relationships with others. In the mosaic of
it is also a land of cultural metamorphosis. Reza
the identities we build for ourselves, the point of
Nadji’s works is a subtle take on this subject – a
truth – the individual projecting these different
cityscape devoid of the people who inhabit it, and
versions of self – has no boundaries and often lies
a deep sense of conservatism cloaked in modernity.
somewhere between the lines. The current issue
On similar lines, Azadeh Akhlaghi’s work, featured
of PIX focuses on the contradictory compulsions
in the editorial section, depicts Iran’s tumultuous
of such identities within the unique socio-political
and complex history. Akhlaghi’s profound By an
context of Iran.
Eye-Witness series introduces us to the precarious
A camera captures the likeness of the object
it shoots. But a photograph can go one step
further, capturing the thought or intention of the
ties existing between the political scenarios and
the people of Iran.
Ali Nadjian’s body of work titled, We Live in a
photographer behind the camera. Photographers
Paradoxical Society, implies a sense of duality –
at times use their imagination as a defense
in a seemingly mundane documentation of the
mechanism, borrowing props from real life to
daily lives of average Iranians there exists a sense
describe fictitious narratives; perhaps these props
of discomfort. Nikoo Tarkhani’s Me-ror offers a
act as metaphors that endorse the photographer’s
direct testimony to the eternal flow of life, space
identities. For example in Memories of the Interior,
and time through the merging of her family
Arash Fesharaki’s visualisation of places, which
portraits. It is an affirmation of an often forgotten
remain incomplete without a suitable inhabitant
inevitability – of how deeply couched our
18 | P I X
Kaveh Baghdadchi
To Their Private World
Text by Sara Reyhani
the 20th century. Baghdadchi’s multiple points
of view shows how the photographer faces his
At first glance, Kaveh Baghdadchi creates a lucid
subject. There is a public viewing as the portrait;
dialogue between images and contexts.
and a private one as his environment. This
His works are a social documentary on
interaction begs the question –can an object
contemporary Iranian businesses, the labour
replace our encounter with human beings and
industry and the unkempt forms of display
how do we rationalise our intimate relationship
created by the workers/owners. Composed
with paraphernalia? Are these composites an
as diptychs, the aesthetic concerns of the
extension of the photographer's desire alone? Are
photographer come to the fore as a documenter
we all ‘users’ of objects or do we become innately
and as a narrative composer, trying to frame his
connected to their fates?
subjects beyond a conventional trope – 'looking'
at them, but also 'seeing' how they function .
An inter-textual reading of the two photos
Such an attitude toward the entrepreneurs
or laymen depicted here reminds me of the old
gravestones on which one would often see carved
reveals that the images are portraits of existing
motifs of the tools of trade used by the deceased
‘little trades’, historically also explored as a
– his own personal insignia. For example, scissors
subject by American photographer Irving Penn in
and combs were carved on the gravestone of
20 | P I X
All images from the series
To Their Private World,
Qazvin/Tabriz/Malayer/
Chaalous, 2008-2011
Digital
P I X | 21
To Their Private World,
Qazvin/Tabriz/Malayer/
Chaalous, 2008-2011
Digital
22 | P I X
a barber. Based on this logic, we see how the
The aesthetic interplay between labouring bodies
images are a summarisation of a teashop owner
and those spaces that embody the worker in
in the form of a teacup, saucer, ashtray and sugar
absentia, occupies the core. This aspirational
lump; the carpet dealer in a colourful yarn; the
quality allows us to enter the hopes and dreams
butcher in an axe and cleaver, and the studio
of those within the images. Capturing a phase of
photographer in the displayed photos.
life, or even a moment is an intervention. However,
Photography is then about essences. It panders
the ‘everydayness’ of the images captured here,
to a psychological domain in which the portrait of
is complimented by the respectful manner of the
a space or a person is as much about what is in the
photographer, maintaining both distance and
image, as about how it is composed.
intimacy.
P I X | 23
24 | P I X
P I X | 25
Arash
Fesharaki
Memories of the Interior
A Poem In Which She Remembers
by Meena Kandasamy
“We were not lovers, we were love.”
—Jeannette Winterson
The woman you once knew
will not own up to her face.
She’ll tie her hair in a topknot,
guard its million tangles, skip
kohl that once defined her eyes,
forsake the gypsy jewellery, milk
cigarettes in her mouth, and stop
herself from dancing in the rain.
She’ll curse her restless anklets
that break the silence of cruel days,
bury herself under a blanket that
betrays the shame of night hungers,
and sleep herself to a dream
of waking by your side.
She’ll write you the daring first lines
of long love-letters she will never
Memories of the Interior,
After Sunrise
Tehran, 2012
Digital & drawing
send, struggle to prevent a poem
from forming within her mouth,
and in its place, feed the promises
of your kisses to her eager tongue.
P I X | 27
Memories of the Interior
Tehran, 2012
Digital & drawing
Above: Bathroom
Facing page above: Insomnia;
Facing page below: Nude by her
Childhood.
28 | P I X
P I X | 29
All images from the series Memories of the Interior
Tehran, 2012
Digital & drawing
Above: Solitude
Facing page: Temptations of Morning Sleep
30 | P I X
P I X | 31
Babak Kazemi
The Exit of Shirin and Farhad
Text by Rahul Soni
Winning back a kingdom takes a lot of
planning and preparation, a lot of time.
All stories, if continued far enough, end in death.
Meanwhile. Farhad falls in love with Shirin. Shirin,
Especially all stories of love. There’s no lonelier
either to make Khosrau jealous and spur him on to
death, except suicide, than of that person who has
quicker action, or just tired of waiting, pretends
outlived the beloved. If two people love each other
to fall, or falls, in love with Farhad. But she refuses
there can be no happy end to it.
to marry him until he, all by himself, digs a canal
These are the lonely ones, these are the ones
who died: Kurd, Persian, Armenian. Farhad, the
Kurd. Stone mason who dared to love a queen.
be proved?
Meanwhile. Farhad takes chisel and mallet,
Prince who won back his kingdom. Killed by his
hammer and spade, goes back to the mountains
son over a woman. Shirin, the Armenian. Princess,
and begins. Khosrau marries another princess in
setter of tests, wary of love. Three times dead and
exchange for an army. Farhad chisels and digs.
the loneliest of them all. Dead, finally, by her own
Khosrau, with this army, reclaims his kingdom.
hand.
Farhad chisels and digs. Khosrau doesn’t come
back.
agree on this: Khosrau falls in love with a dream;
We do not know what Shirin has been doing
and Shirin, with a picture. They both chase these
all this while. Just waiting? It is hard to believe.
images, going in opposite directions, crossing and
But then, perhaps princesses don’t need, aren’t
missing one another until, at last, they meet. In
expected, to do anything. Except wait and be
all this coming and going, Khosrau is dethroned.
beautiful. Which she did, which she will always
Shirin refuses to marry him until he wins his
remain. So much so that Khosrau’s son, when he
kingdom back.
grows up, will kill his father and try to marry her,
And Khosrau goes off again.
32 | P I X
Always a test. Because what is love if it can’t
Dead by his own hand. Khosrau, the Persian. A
There are many versions of the story, but most
The Exit of Shirin and Farhad,
Tehran, 2011
Digital
through the mountains of Kurdistan.
and she will kill herself to prevent it. But that is
P I X | 33
the third death. That comes later.
Before that, someone – Khosrau, someone
from her family, Shirin herself – will tell Farhad
she has died, and he will believe it. The first death.
Farhad will kill himself, and his chisel and
mallet, hammer and spade will grow into tall
cedars atop the snowy mountains of Kurdistan.
When Shirin hears this, she will rush to his
corpse and, struck with sorrow or remorse, kill
herself. The second death.
She kills herself, she doesn’t kill herself. She kills
herself for Khosrau, she kills herself for Farhad.
She’s buried beside Khosrau, she’s buried beside
Farhad. But they all lived alone, they all loved alone
and, in the end, they all die alone.
And before that, while Farhad is still alive, still
digging that canal through the mountains, Shirin
will visit him. Amazed that he’s doing it, that he
might even finish. After the long, lonely journey,
she will see him and faint. He will pick her up,
horse and all, and carry her back to her palace.
Waking up, she’ll think it might have been a
dream.
A smile will play upon her lips.
34 | P I X
P I X | 35
The Exit of Shirin and Farhad,
Tehran, 2011
Digital
36 | P I X
P I X | 37
Dariush Kiani
Inside
Square of Silence
our genes ferment in little cells, our habits sit
everything’s contained, in something else.
dour and sulking in those genes
Poems by Deepankar Khiwani
uncertainty totters within each assertion, and the
acid vodka
is lucid in my glass; which sits by me in this failing
restaurant.
O and we Empty Out and we Transfer. Vodka
trickles into me, and
My wry disdain of everything permeates the bar
like the gas left on
by a fin-de-siècle suicide. Inside the vacuous
barman’s iris I see flecks of green
and exasperation, there’s a question in his head as
he sees me staring at his chest;
and so soon I’m trickling out, into the street
again, jacketless,
Last January and I fight for space in sobriety,
contending, we stumble through the street, then
lingering like smoke in the lift,
to then distil within the rented despair of this
motel room,
its curtains lurid red and green. Standing at the
basin, I put on my wedding ring.
I see I’ve displaced the guest who’s left
his false teeth on the counter, in a half-full glass;
he’s displaced me in a world of phantoms, left his
smile staring at me,
looking for home. Oh everything’s contained, recirculated, trapped,
transferred, and abandoned, and can't be got rid
Square of Silence,
Tehran, 2009-10,
Digital
38 | P I X
off,
And an old raw laughter rasps out of me, like a
cough,
and echoes within a wholly missing room.
P I X | 39
Packing Up
my samsonite lies on its back, its cover open,
nothing inside but mothballs. i lean over it, smelling
the empty space.
my body straps in an ache; it’s heavy, slipping
from my grasp. i want to let go but can’t
the ache holds too much empty luggage. light
with a bodiless packing up.
at grand central his shoulder strap snapped,
and i tumbled out, with his cellphone, gum,
condoms, a blank diary,
and cigarettes.
40 | P I X
P I X | 41
Special Feature
Mahdieh Mirhabibi
In Somalia
I have shed tears and questioned even the most
mother living in a constant state of grief and fear,
distant consequences of the actions that I had
and I, as a four year old girl shaken by the trauma
documented. In my mind, war and its effects
surrounding me. My hands ached with the desire
make no sense. The eight-year long war between
to write a letter to my father who was serving
Iran and Iraq marked a harsh awakening in my
on the war front. The shrill sound of the alarm
life; the death of my nineteen year old cousin; my
from the radio; my little brother’s toy tank – a
42 | P I X
From the series In Somalia’s Colour
Mogadishu, 2011
Digital
A disabled man who lost his leg
in the war walks on a street in
Mogadishu.
Mogadishu, 2011
Digital
A woman stands in a bullet-riddled
doorway in Mogadishu
souvenir from the US; the blackness of my veil
see them dancing and hovering in the misty and
preventing me from seeing the dead bodies in the
gloomy sky of my heart, almost within reach.
ambulance…I remember it all vividly. It is still so
dark, but it is not distant.
Like feathers in the wind, my childhood
dreams never came within my reach; and still I
About the Somalia project:
On the 6th of August 2011, Islamist militia
Al-Shabaab retreated from Mogadishu, leaving
P I X | 43
Mogadishu, 2011
Digital
A Somali and her paintings in a
shelter, Mogadishu.
a city wounded by two decades of civil war.
couldn’t manage such a large scale crises single
Inhabitants, still terrified by snipers, abandoned
handedly. People were trapped between an
several districts. Internally Displaced Persons
incompetent authority and an armed group
(IDP) camps, where hundreds of people arrived
which blocked humanitarian aid from reaching
every day in order to avoid starvation were
its destination, necessary to help people against
spread out in the whole city. Transitional
one of the worst droughts in the 'Horn of Africa',
Government Forces, there to protect the
a term given to the region. Those who tried to
population, were sometimes responsible for
flee, eventually reached the biggest IDP camp in
serious human rights violations in the IDP
Dadaab, Kenya, having left behind their tattered
camps, and AMISON (African Union Peace Forces)
homes, lacking any sense of security.
44 | P I X
Mogadishu, 2011
Digital
Somali boys run to catch a bus in
a war-damaged area in the city of
Mogadishu.
From the series Eyes of Language
Mogadishu, 2011
Digital
A displaced girl, who suffers from
a severe eye infection and famine,
looks on at Badbadoo camp in
Mogadishu.
P I X | 45
From the series Eyes of Language
Mogadishu, 2011
Digital
Somali children waiting to get food
from WFP (World Food Program),
Mogadishu.
Somalia, 2011
Digital
A Somali man passes a building which
was damaged during the civil war in
Mogadishu.
46 | P I X
Mogadishu, 2011
Digital
The body of a Somali man in Madineh
Hospital, Mogadishu.
P I X | 47
Mogadishu, 2011
Digital
Smoke rises from the remains of a
suicide bomb blast as people look
on. A car bomb exploded outside a
government building in Mogadishu,
killing 70 and wounding dozens.
48 | P I X
From the series In Somalia’s Colour,
Mogadishu, 2011
Digital
The dead body of a Somali boy seen
at the site of the suicide bomb blast
in Mogadishu.
P I X | 49
From the series Eyes of Language,
Mogadishu, 2011
Digital
A Somali girl passes through a
damaged church in Mogadishu.
50 | P I X
P I X | 51
Ata Mohammadi
Repulsion
Silence, in Respect of an Outcry
Text by Saleh Tasbihi
An immaculate and surreal world is created by
thought – a social statement about nature,
Ata Mohammadi, arrived at through a complex
as much as it is about materiality. The ironical
juxtaposition of objects of the ‘everyday’.
twist in meaning challenges stereotypes or
Each frame illustrates a story that has been
clichés through a mannerist style. Is his work
fabricated through contrast. Though the
then a response to his environment as an
individual entities within the image are suffused
insulated artist, or does it ponder a larger cultural
with their own meaning, the difference between
entanglement that can be read across the board?
the objects creates a message, a metaphor. The
Is his specific social conditioning leading to a
question is: What distinguishes Ata Mohammadi’s
unique language? As an Iranian artist with many
works from the advertising industry with its
restrictions to showcase work in the public
sheek communication? Do they mark a renewed
sphere, Ata Mohammadi incessantly questions his
quotidian reality in which regular objects can be
surroundings not with the tools of a fine artist,
transformed into works of art?
namely, form and colour, but rather through a
The stylistic manner and technical precision
lend timelessness and placelessness, further
emphasised by sepia tones adopted from an
The barbed hairbrush, a woman with a head
cover whose hijab has a padlock, the hovering
make certain propositions –though advertising
teapot over a toilet ewer and two pieces of a
could be an important precedent – the sense of
stone stitched together with needle and thread –
distinction comes from the interface between
all these instances depict a kind of opposition to
politics and an emotional temper. The sheer eye
the restrictive connotations that objects signify,
for detail in the production process, absent of any
and in doing so they become emblematic of a
faulty technical footprints, allows us to question
deeper self-expression. Historically speaking,
whether these works were infact man made, and
they are an aesthetic statement, similar to the
hence the notion of a constructed reality.
propositions of the surrealists after World War II
and realism, reminding me of the caricatures of
52 | P I X
appeal and fidelity to reality.
earlier era. On further inspection, the images
The compositions explore a somber distance
All images
from the series Repulsion,
Life Today,
Tehran, 2012
Digital
medium that is recognised for its democratic
in Europe – contradicting the empty ideologies
of tyranny that curtail the freedom of expression.
the American illustrator, Brad Holland and the
For me, conflict, protest and inventiveness
French painter, Roland Topor. The deployment
are the three major elements that seamlessly
of a formalistic tendency in his work leads to a
combine in Ata Mohammadi’s works, and this
pictorial style informed by the ‘objectification’
is why we must observe minutes of silence in
of an idea, wherein the work represents a larger
respect of his artistic outcry.
P I X | 53
Repulsion
Rock
Cancer
Depression
Life Theatre
Tehran, 2012
Digital
54 | P I X
P I X | 55
Repulsion
Power the Will
Pain as a Natural Heritage
Tehran, 2012
Digital
56 | P I X
P I X | 57
Reza Nadji
Tehran: The City Interrupted
Text by Azadeh Akhlaghi
The city is a complex organism riddled with
contradictions. The eerie silence that permeates
these images creates a mood of disharmony and
rupture, forging an apocalyptic reckoning of
what has come to pass. This city, Tehran, is like a
human body, fallen to its knees in confrontation
with its settlers: the city centre appears in deepfreeze – half-finished buildings that loom like
giants made of debris; trash heaps that have
not been cleared; highways abandoned of cars; a
dilapidated basketball court; washed out murals
and billboards that present a scatological sense of
desire – all tell the story of a frozen and lifeless
age devoid of citizens, annihilated or simply those
that left in the wake of a pandemic. Without
communication there can be no network, and so
it is the lack of a dialogue, the inability to connect
that has left the city inert.
Reza Nadji is the documenter of a downfall,
a seeker of the boundaries, both social and
ecological in which the fundamental notion
of urbanisation through coexistence is now
58 | P I X
Tehran
Bozorgrahe-e-Navvab-eSafavi, Beryanak
2007-08
P I X | 59
All images from the series Tehran
Clockwise:
Bozorgrah-e-Navvab-e-Safavi, Beryanak
Ayatolla Taleqani, Behjat Abad
Meydan-e-Jahad, Behjat Abad
Bozorgrah-e-Modarres, Kavusiyeh
2007-08
Facing page: North View from Eskan Building,
Bolvar-e-Mirdamad, Kavusiyeh
60 | P I X
interrupted. The city-citizen of the future will
buildings loom like deformed and incomplete
mark his presence through an absence. An
creatures. Fatigued and broken-hearted, the
integrated structure of places and people will
city awaits in agony for the spring to come, and
cease to exist. Silence and death will prosper as
for life to end this age of frost.
P I X | 61
All images from the series Tehran
A.S.P. Building, Kordestan, Shahrak-e-Valfajr
2007-08
Facing page:
Above: Meydan-e-Kuhestan, Sa’adat Abad #2
Below: Shahrak-e-Qods, Gharb
62 | P I X
P I X | 63
Ali Nadjian & Ramyar
Manouchehrzadeh
“We Live in a Parodoxical Society”
Text by Newsha Tavakolian
I begin to analyse its potential to express a
‘condition’. Such moments are both paradoxical
“Paradoxically though it may seem, it is none the
– almost absurd, but deeply familiar to Iranian
less true that life imitates art far more than art
society in the present, a society in which the
imitates life.” freedom to express is a privilege.
—Oscar Wilde
Politics plays a vital role, inseparable from
the inner yearning for identity and the outward
Images from the series
We Live in a Paradoxical Society
Tehran, 2009
Medium format 6x6 slide
64 | P I X
Ali and Ramyar’s work is a comment on society as
display of the ‘self’, whether it is within a family
much as it is a definite statement on art. Though
or in society as a whole. It is a daily discomfort
their work explores the vicissitudes of a mundane
one feels with the situation in Iran, a country
reality and the routine of daily life, when I look
that hides from its own feelings –a nation turned
at it as a piece of art within a frame in a gallery,
against itself.
P I X | 65
The photographers have therefore set out
to portray a realistic view of the private life of
inner answers and documenting the moment of
Iranian citizens living in Tehran. However, in
that exploration.
only one photo (a girl standing next to the wall
66 | P I X
Then there are images that belong to a very
while two men administer or consume drugs)
separate series of work titled ‘Ice’, a concept,
the subjects seem to be over dramatised, almost
which was developed post the 2009 elections in
a satire on the Iranian predicament – that there
Iran. To paraphrase Ali Nadjian, Ice is a concept
is little transparency in the functioning of
in which people lost not only their desires and
state and though popular opinion is known, it is
dreams, but also what they had before. The sense
rarely voiced. In the images, the characters are
of being ‘frozen in silence’ is what they translated
consumed in their own thoughts – a man shaves
to ‘ice’. The aim was also to illustrate a dual life
while the news plays out on the TV in the next
in a constructed atmosphere – one that leads to
room; a father looks away while his assumed
fear and indifference.
daughter smokes in the background. In this
From the series Ice
Tehran, 2010
Medium format 6x6 slide
a more in-depth commitment to searching for
Ali and Ramyar are photographers whose work
case, the viewer doesn’t know whether one of
challenges the viewer to investigate the norms
them has surprised the other with a confession;
of reality or the extremity of the imagination in
the scenarios seem unending. There is at heart
trying to be real.
P I X | 67
Mehrdad Asgari Tari
The Second Take
Text by Tooraj Kamenehzadeh
of people, or, by each character being a faceless
identity, is he or she ‘nobody’? Are we seeing
At first glance, Mehrdad Asgari Tari’s photographs
enactments of actions that have occured, or are
create a sense of astonishment in the viewer –
the people part of the fractured imagination of
faceless, headless characters enact a series of
the photographer himself? Does multiplicity
bizarre activities. Some of the same ‘characters’
embody the theme of this collection, or is just a
seem to appear in multiple frames – a woman
simple narrative about isolation and obliterated
in a black coat, a man in a purple shirt (perhaps
identity?
the photographer himself?) But then the viewer
begins asking questions: are there a multitude
In Mehrdad's words, “the people in my photos
are a collective of changing times. They do not
The Second Take,
Tehran, 2006
Digital
68 | P I X
P I X | 69
possess any unique or recognisable ‘selfdom’ and
back, clearly in the same space, but completely
live only on the surface of their lives.” Perhaps the
disembodied from each other – she looks at the
viewer might see a connection between himself
image of a baby’s face in a mirror, he points a
and this distorted ‘other’ as an interpretation
gun to his own face. A rather dark and chilling
of multiple identities. There is a sense of drama
account of past, present and future, or a ‘second
in the work – over posed, with a heavy reliance
take’ of the identities we do not investigate often
on props. Perhaps this is best exemplified in the
enough?
photograph of a man and woman seated back to
70 | P I X
P I X | 71
The Second Take,
Tehran, 2006
Digital
72 | P I X
P I X | 73
Special Feature
Majid Saeedi
Life in War
In 2001, when I went to Afghanistan for the first
time, I did not understand the depth or scale of
tragedy that had unfolded and would continue for
years to come. Afghanistan has been dealing with
All images from the
series Life in War,
Afghanistan, 2010-2012
Digital
war for fifty years, perhaps more, with a history of
An Afghan boy smokes
opium with his family in
Badakhshan.
the past ten years and during my last trip, I saw
Afghan boys in Herat
(2001)
74 | P I X
violence and bloodshed preceding its more recent
decade-long coverage in the news.
I have been travelling to this country for
thousands of children orphaned and disabled,
countless lives lost in war and a country left
in ruins; a country where malaria and other
diseases claim the lives of thousands every
P I X | 75
month; a country where hundreds of children
A Taliban shows his weapons to the
photographer after surrendering
himself to the government in West
Afghanistan.
Burial ceremony of a martyr killed in
a war by the Taliban in Kabul
76 | P I X
The consequences of such wars, within and
die because of insufficient food and clean
outside home, are becoming more visible day
drinking water; a country where thousands
after day - children lose their parents, and women
of women catastrophically perish by self
whose husbands die become responsible for their
immolation due to pressure and harassment by
extended families and the lives of their children.
their families; a country where you wake up to
Despite the poverty, drug addiction, lack of
a bomb threat each morning, and where 'human
education and other state-induced difficulties,
rights' are just meaningless words. People here
life goes on in Afghanistan and people continue
think only of survival.
to live with the hope of a better tomorrow.
P I X | 77
All images from the series Life in War,
Digital
An Afghan religious teaches punishes
his student in Herat.
Eleven-year old Ariba from Herat selfimmolated herself a year before this
photo was taken. Forced marriages,
domestic violence, poverty and lack
of access to education are some of
the main reasons for self-immolation.
78 | P I X
Two Afghan girls play with an
artificial hand, south of Kabul.
Afghan women learn how to make
dolls at a workshop sponsored by
Mercy, a Malaysian NGO.
P I X | 79
Facing page:
Farhad Darya, an Afghan singer
performs at Mazar-e-Sharif, at a
concert titled ‘Peace’, specifically for
women.
Above:
Fans of Farhad Darya, an Afghan
singer in a concert in Mazar-e-Sharif.
80 | P I X
P I X | 81
All images from the series Life in War,
Digital
Facing page: Members of the Afghan National Police
being trained at their base in Kabul.
Above: Afghan students in a school bus, south of Kabul
82 | P I X
P I X | 83
Military, government and security
officials attend the burning of
confiscated opium in Herat.
84 | P I X
P I X | 85
Nikoo Tarkhani
integrity of your materiality, illusion of intactness—
“What we want to say is,
we burst forth.
we crawl out on bony, plump knees & from a heap in the floor
see
Me-ror
All images from the series Me-ror,
‘Uncle’
Tehran, 2010
Digital
moon-memories, moon-stains, holes of time deposited)
Your broken skin flutters under contact.
Me-ror at what we remember, tearing through the white skin of
Me-ror
Poem by Monica Mody
We want you to see us.
your inked world—
Your b&w attic memories where we yellow & stain—
Each of us wants you to see yourself there in the dark heart of
where you have preserved us, dated us, annotated us
things—
see us—
know of your blood, bone, ligament, tracks, continuity—
paper, parchment, petal.
You see yourself.
with love & that instinct for self-preservation—
We want that you see yourself, we want to rupture surface, form,
seam
(grateful as we are
in our ash way—
86 | P I X
P I X | 87
You are restless.
Your broken skin flutters under contact.
We chose your surface to tear up, you know
yourself to be porous.
Your eyes are beautiful, open or closed. Eyes in
lost, mysterious medium. Dark shadow growing
Each of us trying to speak to you—
from our eyes, we see you.
We scrabble our way out through brow, visage,
We are map, contour, cloth, fire. We are marks,
glade
vibrations, outtakes, love. Ancestors need your
restless as beavers, each of us trying to speak to
warmth, human. Me-ror. We want you to know
you. Your mirror is tilted to hear. Your ears ring,
that we are here.”
our cries through your ear—
88 | P I X
you mirror us.
‘Mother’
‘Grandma’
‘Sister’
Tehran, 2010
Digital
P I X | 89
‘Grandpa’
‘Grandma’
‘Uncle’
‘Uncle’
Tehran, 2010
Digital
90 | P I X
P I X | 91
Gholam Reza Yazdani
Beyond the Doors
Dual Life
Text by Mehrdad Afsari
and connecting spaces. Interestingly, the actual
definition of a ‘camera’ is that of a ‘door’ and of
a ‘room’. The camera connects the two spaces –
Beyond the Doors,
Shiraz, 2013,
Digital
92 | P I X
A dual life may be construed as different
that which lies infront of and behind the lens. The
atmospheres or climate conditions that develop
shutter serves as a 'key' that unlocks the reality
in a singular space – a space that is divided by
of what lies behind closed doors – a voyeuristic
invisible lines, and forces of control. What we do
potential that is innate to the act of ‘looking’ itself.
within and outside these lines is therefore at a
cross – each has its own threshold and temper.
The ‘door’ plays a key role in both separating
As I browse the moments that have been
captured frame-by-frame, I feel that privacy itself
is on display and the keyhole becomes an object
P I X | 93
Photographers
that looks in, but also one that can be used to
transgressive notion, suggesting that the further
look out. In both cases, the viewing of the world
one tries to uncover the truth, the more one
and of ‘the interior’ is sequestered and edited,
reveals of ones-self. The dual life is therefore as
a partial reality that demands expansion and
ironical as it is necessary.
disclosure. The sense of ‘duality’ comes forth as a
94 | P I X
Kaveh Baghdadchi is a fine art and
documentary photographer who also teaches
photography at Qazin Azad University. He has
won several awards for photography in Iran and
around the world. He has participated in solo and
group exhibitions nationally and internationally,
in addition to publishing his works in books and
magazines.
Arash Fesharaki studied graphic design at the
University of Art and Architecture in Tehran. He
works in the fields of painting, photography and
video art in Tehran.
Babak Kazemi is a self-taught photographer
living and working in Tehran. He grew up in the
city of Ahvaz, which is a recurring subject in
his work. Just a few kilometers away from the
first-discovered oil well in the Middle East, Ahvaz
was one of the cities that was greatly affected
during the eight-year Iran/Iraq war, which
Kazemi witnessed during his early childhood.
He uses oil both as a concept as well an addition
to his artistic process, frequently soaking his
photographic prints in oil.
Dariush Kiani did a BA in Photography at
Azad University, Tehran. He has held a solo
exhibition at Silk Road Gallery, Tehran (2010) and
participated in several group shows. He has won
several awards, including placing first place at the
Photo Festival, Tehran in 2008.
Ramyar Manouchehrzadeh did his MA
in Photography at the Tehran Art University.
He won the special prize of the 10th Iranian
National Biennial of Photography in 2006. He
has participated in several individual and group
exhibitions inside and outside of Iran and has
worked in collaboration with Ali Nadjian for
several years.
Mahdieh Mirhabibi is a freelance photo
journalist. She embarked on the photographic
journey by travelling to the Kurdistan region
on the western border of Iran affected by the
eight-year war between of Iran and Iraq. This
was followed by a visit to Afghanistan, India and
Somalia, where she documented a nation ravaged
by genocide and war crimes. Her internationally
acclaimed photography has been showcased in
Iran and India.
Ata Mohammadi is a graphic designer based in
Tehran. He has been part of two group exhibitions
(Kamaledin Behzad Gallery, 2009 and Shafagh
Gallery 2008) and has held a solo show (Darya
Beygi Gallery, 2013). He won first place in Poster
Design at The 1st Festival of Art and Recycling
2013.
Reza Nadji studied photography at the
University of Applied Sciences and Arts in
Dortmund and at Parsons School of Design in
New York. Born in Tehran and raised in Dusseldorf,
he now lives and works in Berlin, where he also
runs a platform for photographic education.
Ali Nadjian studied Architecture at Soureh
Art University and did his BFA in Photography
at Tehran University followed by an MFA in
Photography at Tehran Art University. He has
participated in several individual and group
exhibitions inside and outside of Iran. He teaches
art photography at Isfahan Art University, Semnan
Art University and Mahe Mehr Art Institute. He is
the founder and art director of Aco Photo Studio.
Majid Saeedi is an award winning and
internationally recognised Iranian photographer.
He has photographed Middle East with a focus
on the humanitarian aspect for the past two
decades. His work has been published in the
international press including Times, Der Spiegel,
Life, New York Times, Washington Post, Time
Magazine and online agencies. Saeedi has won
many awards for his work, the most recent being
World Press Photo 2013.
Mehrdad Asgari Tari studied Photography at
the Tehran Fine Art University and Computer
Graphics at Cavendish College. He has held
several solo shows in Iran, and his work has been
published in books and magazines. In 2012, he
was awarded the first prize of the 12th Iranian
National Biennial of Photography. He is currently
teaching at institutional centres in Tehran.
Nikoo Tarkhani began her career as an artist in
2001. Her ouvre mainly focuses on self-portraits;
whether in her paintings or other mediums, like
video and photography, She currently lives and
works in Tehran.
Gholam Reza Yazdani did his BA in Dramatic
Literature. He has been involved in theatre and
other activities in the art and cinema world in
Tehran. He has had two solo exhibition in Iran
and has participated in Iranian and international
photo festivals.
Writers
Mehrdad Afsari studied photography at the Art
University of Tehran. He has held nine solo photo
exhibitions in Iran and participated in several
group shows in Iran, UK and USA. He is a professor
of Art University of Tehran and TAFE University
(Tehran).
Azadeh Akhlaghi’s practice acknowledges
conceptual approaches to contemporary art
through photography. She has made a number
of short films, which have been screened in
numerous film festivals such as the Berkeley
Art Museum, Pusan and Oslo. From 2001 to
2010 Akhlaghi has participated in numerous art
exhibitions ranging in many countries including
Iran, Australia, England and Turkey.
Meena Kandasamy is a poet. She travels like
a nomad, haunts social media and takes Marx
and Marquez to bed everyday. She used to teach
English at a University, but in those days, she was
a good Indian girl. Tooraj Khamenehzadeh is as an independent
art manager and freelance artist living in Tehran.
He is a member of National Iranian Photographers
Society and a member of Qazvin Photographers
Group. Tooraj is Coordinator of Rybon Art
Center which is currently one of the most
active institutes in international residency and
workshop programs in Iran.
Deepankar Khiwani’s first book, Entr’acte, was
published in 2006. He has been anthologised in
several collections, including The Harper Collins
Book of English Poetry, 60 Indian Poets, The
Bloodaxe Book of Contemporary Indian Poets,
and Both Sides of the Sky. At present he is working
on a second book. He lives in Paris and works for a
technology company.
Monica Mody’s first book, Kala Pani, is out
soon from 1913 Press. She has published three
chapbooks of poetry and cross-genre experiments
and her writing has recently appeared in The
HarperCollins Book of English Poetry, iARTistas, The
Poetry, Pyrta, and Northeast Review, among other
places. She lives in San Francisco.
Mehdi Moghimnejad is a photographer, writer,
translator and art critic. He is also a faculty
member for visual arts at the Art University
of Tehran and on the judging panel for several
festivals in Iran. He has held some solo exhibitions
and participated in several group exhibitions in
Iran and other countries.
Ehsan Rasoulof is an independent producer
and art manager in Tehran. He is the founder and
director of Mohsen Art Gallery. He also conducts
‘darbast’, a non-profit platform for contemporary
arts and culture.
Sara Reyhani did a BA in Graphic Design. She
began her career as a dancer and choreographer
and continued in the field of theatre, working
as a co-director. She has been working with
international groups producing theatrical and
contemporary dance projects. Of late, she has
been actively involved in the visual arts scene
in Iran, creating multidisciplinary/site-specific
events. She now works as a manager and a
curator. Rahul Soni is a writer, editor and translator
based in India. His work has appeared in
various journals, and his books include a
translation of Shrikant Verma’s collection of
poetry, Magadh (Almost Island Books, 2013) and
Geetanjali Shree’s novel, Tirohit (HarperCollins,
2013). He was a Charles Wallace Visiting Fellow in
Literary Translation in 2010 and a Sangam House
Fellow in 2012.
Saleh Tasbihi studied Graphic design at TV Art
School and the Art University of Tehran. He has
written many articles about contemporary Iranian
art in newspapers and magazines. He is a member
of the International Federation of Journalists and
editor of a few art magazines.
Newsha Tavakolian is a self-taught
photographer whose work has been published by
international magazines and newspapers such
as Time Magazine, Newsweek, Stern, Le Figaro,
Colors, Der Spiegel, Le Monde, NRC Handelsblad
and National Geographic. Newsha is particularly
known for focusing on women’s issues.
embody
is the theme for the next quarter
T h e g e nd e r i s s u e
E m b o d y : Manif e s t , p e r s o na l i s e , r e v e a l and in t e g r a t e
formation of gender identities as well as the struggles
that constitute that position.
The term ‘Embody’ can be expanded to notions of
absorbing, translating and uncovering. In order to renew
our understating of gender, this term may be illustrated
not only through events and ‘people photography’ but
also through the abstract character of places, spaces,
objects and situations that have been described in
gendered forms. We would extendedly like to emphasise
the importance of personal histories in the constitution
of artistic expression, and hence this issue would
highlight the significance of regional or local standpoints,
and their connection with a larger cultural meaning.
Untitled by Philippe Calia, Mumbai, 2012, Digital
This issue will explore the theme of gender through
various photographic practices, ranging from reportage to
conceptual art. In dealing with a re-assessment of identity,
this edition emerges at a time when there is a national
and global consciousness about the intricacies of image
making practices, and their constitution of our socio-cultural
environment. This issue then is about photography and the
The emphasis would therefore be on the images as
a means of understanding the challenging domains
of integration, citizenship and secular cultures in the
present. Rather than concentrate only on the fetishistic
notion of gender and sexuality, one may look broadly at
narrative forms of photography as a means of bridging
the idea with the reality of gender. The associated aim
would be to embrace the difference and diversity of
expressions about the role of gender and the rights it
commands, in original, imaginative and multidisciplinary ways.
LAST DATE FOR SUBMISSIONS: 20th August, 2013
For more information visit
www.pixquarterly.in or email [email protected]
THE
IRAN
ISSUE
PIX is about investigating and engaging with broad and expansive fields of
contemporary photographic practice in India, ranging from the application,
conceptual standing and adaptability of photography to its subjects: its
movement, transmission, appropriation and distinct relation to the allied arts.
Also featured as part of the Delhi Photo Festival
partner exhibitions at the Goethe Institut/
Max Mueller Bhavan on September 20th 2013.
On view till October 8th 2013. For further
information visit: www.delhiphotofestival.com

The Interior, 20 September 2013 - PIX

Transcription

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