Strange and powerful images by photographer Gohar Dashti, from her series “Iran, Untitled”. It's not difficult to read these as a comment on Iran now, with the people forced to live in an alien world where nothing makes sense, condemned to meaningless rituals in a harsh desert landscape.
That, of course, may be too pat. The accompanying text though, it has to be said, is not notably helpful:
Thus, “Iran, Untitled,” offers a sense of unity of place, which fosters an emerging narrative, but it also implies a place that has lost its locality. Over the course of the pictures, we find only a desert in the middle of nowhere.
The photographer has sprinkled the soil of the land upon the surface of the desert. The horizon on this vast desert slowly flexes up and down, providing air to the people. Dashti has cast such scenes in the midst of this open desert and has fixed her own imagination upon the ground. It is as if her imagination were filled with snapshots of the realities of her country. The snapshots are released in bundles upon the vastness but they don’t recite stories—they whisper…
But yes….wonderfully disquieting and beautiful photographs:
[Photos © Gohar Dashti]
As always, click to enlarge.
Mick Hartley 
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