Days before her residency at the Delfina Foundaton ( london), we are really proud to present a sneakpeak of the wonderfull phographies series spawning from the first one that made her famous to the most recent " An eveningin Iran", under one exhibition titled à propos "In A Trace".
As Tahmineh phrase it herself:
As Tahmineh phrase it herself:
"It was the year 2007, almost 15 years ago that I started professional photography. Before this, I was studying photography for a long time. For me as a student back then, taking photos of the events on the streets was more important than what the educational system wanted from students (which was mainly taking photos of flowers and alike).
Early on, I knew that I would not gain that much from the educational system, as the system only provided certain answers to some pre-raised questions. I had many more unanswered questions myself.
“Instead of all these dark and unpleasant photos, capture nature scenes or flowers.” This was a common thing I would hear when I expressed my real interest in photography. These sayings, however, could not make me stop doing what I was doing. They made me have faith in the path I had chosen.
I wanted to become a photographer focusing on social issues, not someone who knows how operate a camera and push buttons. The limitations related to opportunities given to female photographers in Iran concerned me about the masculine environment of my society.
“The Brides of Mokhber al-Dowleh” as the first project I worked, during the course of three years not only shaped my practice but also became the most influential project of mine. The Brides of Mokhber al-Dowleh began with one single shot that I took on a bridge connecting an intersection. A bridge that no longer exists. The photo displays a hundred-year-old building giving a roof over the headless mannequin brides.
I was fascinated by the fact that at all bridal shops, the bride's dresses were sewn by men. The masculine environment of sewing workshops in a feminine appearance, combined with the noise coming out of an old radio, the voice of a young dressmaker boy laughing, or the sound of a man’s scissors cutting silk.
Simultaneously, I was working on another project, Grape Garden Alley. In 2008, upon an assignment for a magazine, I had to go to the south of Tehran to take photos. On my way, I met several male addicts using drugs. I approached them to ask for permission to take photos of them. This happened several times and on my last trip, I asked them if they knew of any female addicts since they normally do not appear on the streets.
This all led to a shelter in an alley, named: Grape Garden. A shelter housing women from all over the city who have few things in common. They do not have a roof over their head and mostly sleep on the benches of parks. They do drugs. Some were diagnosed with HIV positive. And they all look for safety during the long nights of Tehran.
There are also private charity organizations that provide food, and medicine. These programs help keep these women off the streets during the lockout hours.
My focus was on capturing their portraits, drug overdose and violence are part of the reality for the addicts. And as expected, many do not make it through the program successfully but there are also heartwarming and encouraging stories of women who manage to quit their addiction and find a place in society.
Grape Garden Alley was where I spent three years of my career. The project however continued in another form until 2016 by following a character whom I met there.
Tina, a transgender left home at the age of 15 because her family would not accept her sexual identity. Not welcomed at home nor in society, for many years she lived in a delusional reality shaped by drugs. Being arrested and spending two years in jail not only put an end to her addiction but motivated her to restart. The shelter as a small community was the first place; she could call home after so many years of struggle. At the age of 44, she was independently living in a room with her dog awaiting brighter days to come. However, it never came true. In early 2020, she died when she was 50.
In 2012, during the highly sensitive and depressing political atmosphere of Iran, I was arrested. A month of being imprisoned and the following trauma of such an event suspended my practice for two years. Such a long gap made me lose some faith I had in documentary photography. I was looking for a comfort zone or a zone exclusive to the challenges I used to face before my arrest. Staged photography seemed to be that comfort zone for a while.
Video (OXYS in Black and White) 2013, was produced right after I was released. On one hand, it was inspired by a thought that was chasing me in my lonely hours in my prison cell. What if I was pregnant in that situation? It would give an end to my loneliness. On the other hand, it was inspired by a friend’s dream in which she was pregnant. She dreamed of being pregnant and giving birth to an unknown creature instead of another human. The creature, however, was miscarried.
In the past years 2019- 2022, my interests, passions, and experience have been motivated by the everyday life of human beings in Iranian society. my work has been concentrated on the roles of women in urban and rural cultures, especially in coastal provinces of the Persian Gulf including Sistan and Baluchistan, and Hormuzgan.
A Life in front of you is about Hamoun lake located in Sistan and Baluchistan. This seasonal lake once was the biggest freshwater lake and the second largest lake in Iran. In recent decades it has been almost completely dried all year round. A large part of the population has migrated to other cities either near or far. Those who stay, have to deal with a good number of challenges, namely a lack of resources to live on. The lake started to dry up after the building of two large dams on the main tributaries of the Helmand river in Afghanistan, the main source of water for Hamoun.
Global warming resulting in extended droughts has also been an important contributing factor. The locals usually change the place of their life with the annual drought, because they want to live close to the water.
In 2022, I particularly focused on various aspects of life in the African Iranian community known as Zangis who were imported to Iran before the nineteenth century by Arab slave traders from the coast of Southeast Africa, in an area roughly comprising modern-day Tanzania, Mozambique. Wherever on the southern coasts of Iran, the African Iranians settled down, they adapted to the language, accent, and religion of the region.
In this project, I am focusing on African Iranian women and their social roles and engagements in the culture of Baluchistan. I lived among them and studied their oral traditions for a while. Through my images, I try to showcase two major themes. First, how these women have remained isolated from the development of the modern state system, and secondly how they have kept their cultural practices while adapting to the new Diaspora environment.
The years between 2020 and 2022 were the most active and hard years of my career and my life. During these years, my third project that was forming alongside the aforementioned projects was LUT: documenting The Lut Desert, a tract of sand and fantastical rock formations in southeastern Iran, which is one of the hottest places on Earth, consisting of dunes, ergs, mega-yardangs (Kaluts), desert pavement, as well as large flat areas of salty soils. LUT reminds me of the shape of women's bodies and the body of the earth. Through my eyes, I have touched the symphony of images there. Before taking any photographs of nature and landscapes, this project helped me to breathe and have a deeper view of life." TAHMINEH MONZAVI
Monzavi's work has been exhibited internationally, including Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), Maxxi museum of Roma, Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris (National Museum of Modern Art in Paris). as well as multiple private collections.
