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Shadi Ghadirian: Brochure

  On the Internet and in the Press:
   
  Photography Now
   
  The New York Times
   
  The BBC
   
  International Herald Tribune
   
   
   

 

 
 
 

I am a woman and I live in Iran. I am a photographer and this is the only thing I know how to do. I began work after completing my studies. Quite by accident, the subjects of my first two series were "women". However, since then, every time I think about a new series, in a way it is related to women.

It does not make a difference to me what place the Iranian woman has in the world because I am sure no one knows much about it.

Perhaps the only mentality of an outsider about the Iranian woman is a black chador, however I try to portray all the aspects of the Iranian woman. And this completely depends on my own situation.

When I did the Qajar series of photographs, I had just graduated and the duality and contradiction of life at that time provided the motive for me to display this contrast: a woman who one can not say to what time she belongs; a photograph from two eras; a woman who is dazed; a woman who is not connected to the objects in her possession. It was very natural that after marriage, vacuum cleaners and pots and pans find their way into my photographs; a woman with a different look, a woman who no matter in what part of the world she is living, still has these kinds of apprehensions.

This time the woman is convicted of a daily repetitive routine and for this reason I named the series "Like Every Day". Now I know what I wish to say with my photographs. Until know I have had many photographs which show women as second class citizens or depict the censorship of women.

I wish to continue speaking of women because I still have a lot to say. These are my words as a woman and the words of all the other women who live in Iran where being a woman has its own unique system.

Although ultimately I create these photographs in my personal studio, however I follow social issues. The photographs are not authentic documentations but deal with current social issues.


 
Shadi Ghadirian