"The Diaries", (Analog Photography, 35 and 120mm), 2012-Ongoing
I started documenting my life as a photo diary after I moved to the Netherlands.
I was living in a small city in northern Holland with my husband, where we had moved for his new job. Every time he would go offshore on assignment, I was left on my own in this unfamiliar city, finding myself surrounded by a new culture, in a climate contrasting greatly with that of my motherland, Iran. At that time, everything seemed cold and colourless. I was bored and homesick. That’s when I started to take pictures of my boredom, reflecting my isolation. In an attempt to create my own parallel, imaginary world to live, The Diaries took shape. Documenting my daily life in the Netherlands, and later on while travelling became the central core of my visual diary, that’s how I tried to witness my own life through a camera lens and to keep my memories and dreams alive. These photographs were later the basis for a short experimental film about my life during those days.
Even though a diary is more about a personal experience, I want to share it with the viewer, as a form of storytelling. I intend to invite the viewer to read my unfinished book. The intention is for the viewer to have a sense of the illusion of the story I want to tell, to experience a world which only exists in my dreams, to relive a fantasy or sometimes what seems like a nightmare.
Stop Motions, based on The Diaries
