ArteEast is pleased to present an interview with artist Mohammad Ghazali as part of our Artist Spotlight series.
Mohammad Ghazali (b. 1980, Iran) holds a BA in photography from the Islamic Azad Art and Architecture University of Iran and has lived and worked in France and Germany. In his photography, Ghazali engages with the relation between urban spaces and individual life stories. He has exhibited in more than 20 national and international shows and was awarded 1st prize in the 9th Tehran Photography Biennale in 2004 for his work Self Portrait, which was acquired by the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art for its permanent collection.
ArteEast: Can you tell us about your work in general and the main themes you return to in your practice?
Mohammad Ghazali: Since the beginning of my photography career, the central theme of my work has been photography as a medium. I explore photography overall, especially the potential for analog photography that has been far from our reach or that has yet to be experienced.
Something else that has become more prominent in my photography work is the role of the author. I try to play the author’s role and experience the author in different roles or as a collective.
Finally, I would like to be known as a native photographer, to be known as a Tehrani photographer whose photos share a glimpse into Tehran’s political and social conditions.
AE: In November 2021, you exhibited Persepolis: 2560-2580 at Cromwell Place with Ab Anbar Gallery. Tell us about this project and what it entailed with regards to challenging the idea of archives and the construction of History.
MG: The basis of the exhibition of the Persepolis series was 2560 to 2580 lies; for this reason, I put all my efforts in order to give life to this lie. I prepared a pamphlet that was shared with the visitors of the exhibition and that misled the audience. In some ways, it felt as though the text was not compatible with the series of photos.
I provided information about the Satrapi Empire as well as the Persepolis Palace, its doors, archways, and about how the structures were built and used. The bigger the lie, the more believable it became!
I then included a performance by the friends who organized the exhibition. I asked the colleagues of Ab-Anbar Gallery to lie to the audience by resorting to the brochure.
Since I was not able to be present at the exhibition, I did not get any feedback about reactions to the show. In any case, I know from some friends who attended the exhibition, that based on the fabricated explanations of the ownership of the photographs of Persepolis 2560 to 2580, the source of the works was distorted and the author of the series was lost.
Personally, I don’t erase the line between reference and experience, but I choose the path of the photograph. Through the lens of experience, I step into the world of documentation and make the experiences my own, I taste them and share them. This is the only way out to produce series that make personal taste and smell possible.
Ultimately, these photos are visual documents of the construction of Persepolis. They were taken in 2001 (1380 of the Iranian calendar) and 4 years later, they were given to my classmate, Aria, as a gift to make a series, and after 5 years, they came back to me and were revised.
Media as a whole (photographic, moving image, etc.) has been responsible for informing societies, and at times, misinforming to the point that it becomes the cause of the chaos. Obviously, the Persepolis series 2560 to 2580 and I, Mohammad the photographer, are expanding the range of playing with tools and media rather than challenging truth or reality.
In my opinion, the nature of photography is about the past. We assign every photo that we see to the past. I unwittingly make history through the photos I take, even though I want to deny it. While taking photos, I don’t pay attention to reading this date or showing its importance. This history is my own past!
If the history is the truth of the events that happened, it is not possible to reach the truth by the facts that I alone see and record. We may instead reach the truth by putting these facts together from several perspectives, so that we can trace the history of an event. Like it or not, history is upon us.
We push forward the making of history.
For example, in my series Where the heads of the renowned rest (2001), apart from challenging the concept of the author, the observer and the landscape have an implicit look at history and people. Is it people-making history or history-making people?
Adorno says that the issue is not to return to the past but to save the hopes of the past…
AE: Can you tell us about your recent project, Safar Shahi, and its associated publication? What drew you to begin this project and what significance do you envision it having now and in the future?
I traveled with my friends to the south of Iran and during this trip I decided to take scenic pictures of landscapes. I delivered the film rolls to the laboratory once I had returned to Tehran. Unfortunately (or fortunately) I was not aware that the camera’s aperture was closed and the negatives were not exposed to any light. I was left with three reels of exposed but unexposed film.
In my confusion, I finally deferred to my memory and transcribed the scenes I remembered most vividly to paper. My approach was twofold, the first part consisted of describing how to reach the location where the photo was taken, and the second part was a description of the photographed scene with any details that had stayed in my mind. There were about 20 scenes that I noted, but I settled on 13.
I handed over these scenic descriptions to artist-photographers and asked them to photograph (or to recreate) the scenes that I described based on the missing photos from my travels. They sent me a copy of the photos they took.
I once saw a documentary about a French economist named Albert Kahn, who was worried about the planet following World War I. He predicted that another world war was imminent, so he decided to travel to other countries to photograph and record the collapse of the earth. He traveled to around 20 countries and commissioned groups to take pictures of their various cities and countries. He called his project, The Archives of the Planet and he amassed volumes of negatives, about 75,000 meters.
I realized after watching this documentary that there was a close relationship between this project and the ongoing Safar Shahi project. The first series of photographs from that project are being published in a book called Journey to the South.
AE: You are a founding member of VATAN collective. In addition to the exhibitions and programs the collective puts together, what are some of the new pedagogical avenues you are engaging with? Why are these kinds of projects important for you and for your creative community?
MG: The term VATAN in Persian has a dual meaning. When heard, it means “and homeland,” and in writing, it refers to “and the body.”
VATAN’s goal is to provide a platform that turns potential forces that have been pushed back into reality. With this perspective, we believe that it is possible to provide a dynamic space that belongs to everyone and not everyone. Our arms are open to any collective thought.
VATAN tries to expand into every cultural field: biennials, festivals, and exhibitions. Through the collective we find ways to collaborate with any artist, be they experienced or less experienced.
One of our current projects is in honor of Mr. Ahmad Ali, an Iranian modernist painter and photographer. We have planned a workshop called Madrasah Aali (Aali school), which will start at the end of this month.The school is led by Ashkan Abdoli, a painter, and myself, Mohammad Ghazali, a photographer.
Five painters and five photographers will attend the workshop which consists of one session each month lasting 7 hours. The workshop is multifaceted and does not have a fixed place; the location of the workshop changes every time. Once it could be held in an artist’s studio, and the next in a gallery or any other cultural institution. Two Afghan students, aged 19 and 16, who are interested in painting and photography, will be helping Ashkan and I as assistants.
The host of the workshop will be added to our group and will also contribute their input regarding the series presented in the workshop. If the participants of the workshop seem serious and their work develops well, they have the chance to present their work at the third Mosha’at event next year.
AE: Many of your projects involve multiple collaborators as part of the conception and execution of your artworks. Can you talk about your approach to conceptualizing ideas as an artist and creator?
MG: From time to time, the movement of my photographic path turned into a transverse movement. I was holding the camera from one hand to the other hand so as to get a wider range of the situation I was capturing.
This reflects my interest in collective work. Without a doubt, this idea has a suitable place in my recent photo collections such as Where the heads of the renowned rest and Tehran a little to the right and Night is… and Dredge and Bad and ‘Worse’, the idea of collective practice represents different things when addressing photography or exhibitions. The camera and photos also go hand in hand in recent works. These clashes need cooperation, sometimes cooperation with a single person and sometimes several people; I am addicted to playing!
The collection of photos titled, Photographic Reflections on Being and Time (2014-2022), is a collective project started in 2013 that was exhibited last year. The series was made by seven groups of friends and acquaintances that included friends, family, co-workers, industry colleagues, local businesses, German language classmates, and friends made in studio visits. We encouraged all the people in each group to write and collaborate following a prompt about a location in Tehran.
They started to write about a place or a place in Tehran where the audience would be willing to take pictures and hang them on the wall of their homes, both in Iran and possibly, to be taken along with them abroad. We ultimately went to the selected locations together, and sat down to watch and compare the notes and responses about that place by members of the groups. We provided them with a camera and they took a photo as a souvenir.
I had imagined that the catalogue of the exhibition could be displayed without the pictures of the series. Then the visitors holding the catalogue of the exhibition could match the photo with the corresponding description. They would take the book with them home and later, they may even want to read the descriptions in the catalogue again, but due to the expected ambiguity between the photo and the description in their memory, they would be encouraged to go to the exhibition again and re-connect the photo with its description. They would then sit, look and watch all over again.
AE: What and who are some of your major creative influences, and why?
MG: The camera is still unknown to me. The desire to experience and enjoy the world around me has kept me alive. I am inspired by cats, and the garden and house where I live.
AE: What are you currently working on and do you have any shows or projects upcoming in 2023-2024?
MG: Currently, VATAN has 4 photography and painting shows coming up. The high school workshop will start later this month and will last for ten months. We will also launch the book, Journey to the South (mentioned above). I have a book about the collections that I have worked on so far, along with a Q&A.
And in parallel, I’m working on a series called the Wild Family, which is a reaction to wildlife and its relationship with photography and contemporary society. Besides that, I had already started a series called photo-letters to Tehran, the capital of the world, which is ongoing.
MOHAMMAD GHAZALI ONLINE:
Website: Ab Anbar
Instagram: @vatttan_project
