How do you describe your own art practice?
My work questions identity, it expresses something personal, which pertains to a general issue. For me the hallmark of photography is telling the truth, photographs are magical and full of mysteries. I explore my own identity through my projects and each project is a chapter of my life and a journey, inside and outside.
What was your first experience with art?
I was born in Shiraz in 1980, one year after the Islamic Revolution, which was within each person, including my family. I was introduced to my family through photographs, they were absent in my life but present in the photographs. From a very young age I learnt how to have a conversation with the photographs, and I had a spiritual connection with them because I need my family in my life. Even though they were away, I had them in these fixed states. Those images were the evidence of their being.
What is your greatest source of inspiration?
My memories, I live in my memories. My mother’s poems and my father’s handwriting. I am living with people who I have been living with for years, they are within me. Their lives are my inspiration.
What do you need in order to create your work?
Feeling
Remembering
Reading and Writing
Make the sketchbook
Painting the photographs and listening, (this part of journey is like flying without wings).
Taking Photographs
What are you working on at the moment?
My recent work is about missing home and missing the past.
What work or artist has most recently surprised you?
Many artists. I am surprised by many wonderful, inspiring and powerful works and artists, every single day.
