Newsha Tavakolian an Iranian photojournalist and documentary photographer who has worked for many international news publications, but is also focused on creating artistic work. Her latest body of work Blank Pages of an Iranian Photo Album is on display in Dubai's marvelous East Wing gallery, tucked away in Limestone House, Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC). The show focuses on nine people living in Tehran. The subjects include Mahud, a frustrated singer who has to wait years for persmission to record his albums and in the mean time practices in an empty swimming pool; Ali a soldier who fought for many years in the war with Iraq; Somayeh, a divorced woman who is a teacher and Pani an oversized woman who is depressed as she has been alienated by her image-obsessed society.
Although the show closes in a couple of weeks, Tavakolian was in town on Thursday to give a tour of her work. I caught up with her for this interview and after you have read it, I encourage you to make the time this week to go and see this wonderfully compelling show.
Q: Please tell me about your thought process behind this series…
A: I’ve always wanted to do a photo essay or exhibition about normal or invisible people as I call them. These people have nothing that makes them stand out compared to the two extremes of Iranians that everyone knows. In the West, people are interested either in the very extreme and religious people or the super liberal, whom they call rebels. To be honest, to me, these are both very cliched groups - 80% of the Iranian population are normal, invisible people, so I wanted to do a project about them.
Q: What was the concept for display of the show?
A: As these are simple people, I came up with the idea of making a contemporary Iranian photobook for my generation to tell their story. I picked nine characters that, between them, represent the issues and struggles that the youth are facing today. I took portrait pictures of them to add to the book and images of the people around them. I also asked them to choose an area in the landscape that represented their lives.
Q: Would you describe the final result as documentary images or art?
A: When it comes to Iranians I am very emotional because it is my country and I love it. When you love something you look into it with a critical eye, but I have a background of photojournalism, so I am just observing and do not make any adjustments to the images. In the end, I am showing details and a mirror to society. For me the photos are like impressionist paintings, an impression of their life that I saw.
Q: How did you choose the subjects?
A: I did research for around two months to find people. It was important for me to stress that not everything is fault of the government; some problems are purely cultural. For me everything is symbolic in the images. The plastic bags and the bleak landscape, they are all symbolic of these people’s lives and the struggles they are facing. I am also part of this and therefore, I can tell their stories. It was heavy work for me, because it was the first time I dug into my society and faced what is really happening there. As a photographer I like to challenge myself and see how far I can get.
* Newsha Tavakolian - Blank Pages of an Iranian Photo Album runs until September 10 at East Wing Gallery, Dubai. For more info visit www.east-wing.org
