A photo is the section and cutting of reality and it is the result of selection of someone’s mind as a photographer. The selection that determines which parts of reality – set in front of photographer – should be seen by observer. As a result of this selection other probable choices will be omitted. In confrontation with the photos, there’s always the possibility of another choice, except photographer choice that engaged me… the choice that with the least change can represent reality and meanings which are different from what they are, these realities can change the perception of one photo or even can influence the content of it.
Gradually, this fact became obvious to me that one photo can be a signifier to a signified existence in a distinct time and place, in front of camera, but it cannot determine a definite decree about other signified in the same time and place. For illustrating this uncertainty, I took these photos by a Russian panorama camera.
The common element of all these photos is a white screen with people standing in front of it. The white screen and the subject in front of it, represent the common frame and the photographic choice and the area around it shows the reality that observer is deprived from seeing it, in facing the photos.
These photos are an invitation in order to realize these realities and to study the theme which photos arise from.
Q&A with Elahe Abdolahabadi
Photography is…
Photography is a way of expressing…the way I have chosen for expressing what I have in mind.
Photography and writing…
The products of photography and writing are photograph and text. These two, despite the difference between their constitutive components (gray spectrums vs. letters), have many things in common; both have author and audience, communicate a meaning, and from the standpoint of semiology they originate in a referent other than themselves, etc. These common points, have made them companion; we title photos and write statements for them. The text of statement and title, apart from the meanings they have in themselves, are affected by the meaning of photo when they accompany it, sometimes, they add a meaning it; or they maintain a passive relation.
There is another kind of relation between photography and writing: many photographers convey their ideas through combining photograph and text. Among them, I like the photos of Matt Siber, Carrie Mae Weems and Lorna Simpson.
Who left the biggest impression on you?
I remember my first meeting with Ms Niloofar Mo’taref (a former faculty member of photography in university of Tehran) very clearly. I showed one of my first photo collections to her; she was thrilled! I dare say her assurance on that first meeting, made me pursue photography more seriously, day by day.
Elahe Abdolahabadi
Born in 1988, in Neyshabour, Khorasan Razavi (Iran) where she lives. She is freelance photographer and teacher.
