Asian Photography Blog » Iran

Zeinab Salarvand

yaohong — Thu, 13 May 2010 13:41:32 +0000

TOP TO BOTTOM, from (“Interior, Exterior“)
© Zeinab Salarvand, 2007

Dide Magazine is back with issue 2 and this time round Iranian photographer, Zeinab Salarvand, is featured with a series that leaves me rather unsettled.

There is a saying that the very root of photography is surveying, observing life on behalf God’s eyes; a look from above; a basic view. Alike maps, the ancestors of pictures, I followed beds and bedcovers from the same angle. Decently, the successor of God’s eye went into people’s private sanctum…

The images seek to reveal the subjects’ place of rest – their beds, coupled with a satelite image from Google map and some text on their age/gender/occupation. Does it bother you that perhaps our lives are being scrutinized on a higher level now? Spy movies spring to mind, with the accompanying zooming in special effects. Nevertheless, a simple, well-executed idea in my opinion.

Mehrdad Naraghi

yaohong — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 03:45:07 +0000

Iranian Mehrdad Naraghi turns Tehran into a faceless city.

TOP, from (“Cars”), MIDDLE TO BOTTOM, from (“Fog and Darkness”)
© Mehrdad Naraghi, 2004-2005

View the full series on Naraghi’s website. There’s an interesting interview with him over at Camera Obscura.

Shadi Ghadirian

yaohong — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 18:36:01 +0000

Shadi Ghadirian looks at the state of Iranian women, raising questions of how women are treated in society but with a healthy dose of dark humor.

TOP, from (“Qajar“), MIDDLE, from (“Like Every Day“), BOTTOM, from (“Nil“)
© Shadi Ghadirian, 1999-2007

In the first series, Qajar, she placed her female friends and modern objects within the context of a 19th century photography studio, contrasting the duality and conflicts faced by the modern Muslim woman.

She gained further accolades with her next series, Like Every Day, a look at the endless chores that women face with everyday. The female’s individuality is concealed not just by the chador but also with common household items.

In the latest series, Nil, the roles that males and females play are juxtaposed by symbolic objects. War and bloodshed plays a dominant role in this set of images.

Personally, I found Like Every Day to be the strongest set. In a simplistic manner, she managed to convey the mundaneness of life after marriage. Interestingly, she started the series after she tied the knot. Qajar is slightly kitsch while I think that she was trying too hard for Nil. The pictures look too perfect, too stylized and too straightforward. However, I think it’s hard not to fall into the trap, especially if people expect you to come up with something brilliant all the time.

More of her works can be found here and here.

Mohammadreza Mirzaei

yaohong — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 09:23:09 +0000

A few weeks ago, I had a short email exchange with a reader on whether the blog should feature work from some countries. Iran, and other Middle Asian states were embroiled as I considered them to be Middle Eastern countries. I ruminated over it for several days and it did not feel right – how can one limit good work from being shared? Much less, over so called geographical boundaries? It would have been selfish on my part.

Anyway, check out Mirzaei’s The Encounters series. An interesting body of work of people photographing each other at various tourist hot spots. From the high vantage point, moments are frozen and reduced into graphical elements. It becomes an examination of us, as a camera-toting race and our obsessive compulsion to record everything around us.

I believe this is a good start for exploration into Middle Eastern/Asian photography. Geographical lines and labels mean nothing, as long as we possess the same passion/obsession for photography.

Edit: Apologies for the clunky sentences earlier. Was writing the post while in the office.