Tehran Diary

Tehran Diary by Parisa Aminolahi

2017-Ongoing

35mm film, black and white acrylic on Fuji Crystal Archive Paper Supreme

“Tehran Diary”, is an ongoing project on my mother’s life in Tehran and on her trips to visit her three children living abroad. My mother belongs to a generation of middle class Iranian parents who made possible a revolution, which led to their children leaving their homeland to live in a self-imposed exile. This generation now lives alone, slowly forgotten and left to their own devices. My mother continues to travel every year to visit her three children living in three different countries despite the hassle of difficult visa application procedures. In this series, I try to capture her intimate moments: of silent contemplation, of being surrounded by her children and grandchildren, of pondering her life. After printing these images in small snapshot dimensions, I use black and white paint to shade each photo. This therapeutic stage is also a way to spend more time with her when she is not with me. The result is a hybrid of photography and painting, a sense of my mother’s surreal life.

Tehran Diary was premiered during UNSEEN Photo Fair, Amsterdam, 2019 by Ag Galerie.

To see more of this series:

http://parisaaminolahi.blogspot.com/p/contact.html

Bio:

Parisa Aminolahi (Tehran, Iran 1978) based in the Netherlands since 2008, is a freelance filmmaker, photographer and painter. She studied theatre stage design (BA) and animation (MA) at University of Art in Tehran and documentary filmmaking (MA) at Royal Holloway, University of London. Her work covers a spectrum of themes such as displacement, exile, homeland, family and childhood memories, utilizing childhood and old family photographs, self‐portraits and her own family members as her subjects. Her mediums range from photography, documentary filmmaking, animation, painting and mixed media. She is grant recipient of The Netherlands Film Fund, One World Media Student Film Bursary, the Chevening Scholarship and had screenings and exhibitions in Armenia, Australia, Canada, Iran, the Netherlands, Spain and the UK.

Parisa Aminolahi is represented by Ag Galerie, Iran. aggalerie.com

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