Bite! magazine » Empty Sets About To Be Populated With Actors

Untitled Photographs by Abbas Kiraostami  (December 30, 2009)

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Introduction by Fariba Farshad

The images that Abbas Kiraostami presents of empty rainy roads sweeping past fields and trees are devoid of characters. They seem like empty sets which the great director is about to populate with actors. However, for Kiarostami, roads and trees are artists, interlocutors and companions. "From my very first photos, taken when I first picked up a camera, I realised that trees had more significance for me than human beings," he says. "I have always quoted Ibn Arabi, who says that "the tree is my sister." I feel even more than this." Kiraostami's "Roads and Trees" (1978-2003) includes black and white images of roads that run through austere terrain dotted here and there with the decrepit fence posts and pylon lines that further betray the ever present human hand at work. Ever present but absent. This single empty images are of crucial importance to Kiarostami. "One single picture could be the mother of cinema. That’s where cinema starts, with one single picture."

Read Fariba Farshad's general introduction on her week of Iranian photographers here.

Comment

Today's presentation ends our week of Iranian photography curated by Fariba Farshad. There is a distinct sense of drama in the work of these artists. That may be a feature of current day photography from Iran, but may just as well be a streak of Farshad's personality. Whichever it is, it kicked me out my own bubble and that is a good thing. I had to get used to the visual language some of these artists use a little bit. It is different from the work I am used to seeing. Because of that, some of them caught me off guard and reminded me at times that there is more good photography than only the work that satisfies my expectations. Now let me ask you: What do you think about the work of the artists selected by Fariba Farshad? And what are you working on yourself? Drop me a line or leave a comment, I'd love to hear from you!

Thank you, Diederik Meijer


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Poll results
Our poll "A photo essay always needs a great written story" closed. 267 people voted, 28% agrees, 72% disagrees. 233 people answered our follow-up question "Are you a photographer?" 82% indicated they are, 18% said no. Initially, negative answers to question #1 were almost 100% as was the pecentage of photographers among respondants. Then, when the level of non-photographers started to rise, the percentage of people indicating good text is always essential started to rise too. This seems to indicate that non-photographers think that adding good text to your photo essays is essential. In my opinion: if you want non-photographers to dig your work, you know what to do...

Artist Testimonial

In addition to his work as a film maker Abbas Kiarostami has attracted international acclaim for his poetry and photography. His photographic work includes Untitled Photographs, a collection of over thirty photographs of snow landscapes, taken in his hometown, Tehran, between 1978 and 2003. An exhibition of Kiarostami's photographs of roads, trees and views from a car were shown at PS1 Contemporary Art Centre in New York in 2007.

Kiarostmai is one of the most visionary figures in international cinema, making films that challenge viewers' expectations of modern filmmaking and expound a deeply humanist philosophy.

His photography series "Roads and Trees" (1978-2003) includes two black and white images of roads through austere terrain. One road passes through a mountain hewed away into two complimentary halves and leads out into a cloudbank. In another, an unpaved road runs from the bottom of the frame, snaking right and left as it disappears into a gently rolling, lifeless landscape skirted by decrepit fence posts and in the distance a line of electric wires that further betray the ever present human hand at work.

Kiarostami explains why he needs to make photographs: "Contemplating the cloudy sky and the massive trunk of a tree under a magical light is difficult when one is alone. Not being able to feel the pleasure of seeing a magnificent landscape with someone else is a form of torture. That is why I started taking photographs. I wanted somehow to eternalize those moments of passion and pain."


Abbas Kiraostami (1940) lives and works in Tehran, Iran.
Click weblink en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abbas_Kiarostami or browse our archives

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