From 2003 to 2015, Tehran was a city for me to work and study in, and I had no attachment to it; I would enter the city in the morning and leave it like other daily immigrants at night!
In 2016, I became a resident of Tehran and faced the city and its people closely because of living in the city center. I had a strong desire to walk in the city and observe people. I was interested in discovering the reasons for people’s behaviours and learning about different places. Photography fulfilled all these feelings for me.
At first, my attention was on the buildings, colours, lights, and, in fact, the city’s skin. But gradually I paid more attention to the presence of humans alongside these spaces. In the whole city, there was the street that welcomed me and allowed me to wander for hours. Among the untitled pedestrians who unwittingly took on a role in an unplanned street theatre, I was busy selecting frames that were just there.
Tehran’s streets, which have become mostly imposing and deceiving with colours and lighting, alongside the everyday disarray and the crowds that are only responsible for the black line of a marching army, give another meaning to the city’s disparate and unpredictable elements and events in one frame.
Gradually, for me, the existing street became alive and accumulated with meaning, and I was looking for the connection between the flow of the street and the presence of people in this context.
All the photos were taken with a Fuji X100T camera and a fixed 23mm lens, and I always emphasized light, sharp colours, and multilayered compositions, which are the trademarks of Tehran for me in finding subjects.