Mohammad Ghazali makes sure to vary, literary, his points of view. In the first series, he takes the places of the statues of politicians, artists and scientists scattered throughout Tehran, climbing onto the shoulders of his illustrious metal compatriots, and shows us what they see. The passers-by pay little attention to their surroundings, hands in their pockets and their eyes on the ground. They serve as a reflection of the viewer’s attitude. Seeing from only one angle, we risk not seeing anything at all.
The following series, Tehran A Little to the Right, also challenges the way we see our surroundings by showing views which have been “erased” from the city. Captured on expired film, these innocuous scenes are only partly visible, making it sometimes impossible to put them in context. On some images, all that remains of Tehran are empty sidewalks, or a line of rooftops, quiet and romantic.
With his latest series, Ghazali renews again the process of revelation by visiting stores in the capital after closing time. “The blind and cold eyes of the monumental sculptures in Where the Heads of the Renowned Rest, the blind and randomly taken images of Bad and Worse, the partially erased photographs of Tehran A Little to the Right and the dying light of Night Is, throw the illuminating light by which all that is hidden and concealed comes forth,” writes Dr. Abbas Daneshvari in the article “The Aleatory Nature of Being: The Art of Mohammad Ghazali.”
In the latter series, the installation is part of the experience. Arranged in a light box that slowly burns out over the course of the month-long exhibition, his photographs are on display in an adjacent exhibition, reduced in size. The photographs depict stores when they are no longer accessible. With this installation, Ghazali separates the photograph into two categories: the time it was taken and the time of observation.
The photographer, like the non-photographer, take part in this process of revelation, as it would be in his next series, where he asked amateurs and the blind to take photographs. These are the photographs he had dreamed of doing during his studies but which his professors forbade in the name of traditional photography. Luckily, their conservatism only intensified the flame of his inspiration.
EXHIBITION
Mohammad Ghazali, Night Is
From February 7th to March 4th, 2015
Ag Galerie
No. 3, Pesyan Street
19869-33111 Tehran
Iran
+98 21 2685 1748
