Every Year during the spring time, a small town in the highlands of central Iran called Qamsar, starts the harvesting of pink roses, many workers gathering them for rosewater distillers, A Persian tradition dating back to 2500 years ago.
Iran
Bringing an Iranian Oasis Back from the Dead
Chemical Martyrs
A very well-informed piece on the chemical victims. Very glad to have been part of this important and forgotten issue about Iran's chemical war veterans, Photographing the victims and hearing about their riveting stories.
Published in Pulitzer Center and Science Magazine
Officially Selected for MalatestaShort Film Festival
My Short Music Video A Visual Journey through Sistan and Baluchistan has been officially selected in the MalatestaShort Film Festival
Between a Barrel and a Border: A Look at Gas Smugglers in Iran
Published and Interviewed in the Viewfind website about my on-ongoing photo project of the gas-smugglers in Baluchistan.
Shooting Prominent Scientists in Tehran for the Science Magazine
My Photo Published in Science Magazine Vol 352
My Photo Published on the Cover of Science
Taken in a small lonely island, on the drylands of Urumia Lake, printed on the front cover of Science Magazine...how will science in Iran develop after its long isolation? It was an honor to work for the Science magazine, photographing key scientists working hard to bring their long projects into development.
A Visual Journey through Iran : Sistan&Baluchistan
Swarthy is seemingly, this old and everlasting land; yet how it bristles with spirit. Jaggedly meets your eyes, yet how harmonious this terrain, torn apart and tolled by sectarian tilt, sustain its people. Having cultivated a thousand year history - that compelled Ferdowsi to borrow its hero for his Shahname (The Book of Kings) . What turn has it taken now that it is relegated to the back of beyond? The land where the first rise of the morning sun is promised to its people is at the dusk of this nation.
'Sistan and Baluchistan' a south eastern underdeveloped region with vast lands of rugged, mountainous terrain, bordering the neighboring Pakistan and Afghanistan, where smugglers illicitly enter in and out of the lawless borders through risky routes, surviving from the poverty inflicted by the high rising unemployment. A long-forgotten province, isolated due to its relentless droughts and desolated lands with people repleted with pride and poetry, bonded to their ancestral soil where they endure the harsh climates throughout the dry seasons. This is a brief visual-journey of my overland trip to this long-forgotten land, blotted in the minds of most people with fear and misery. Having travelled for nearly 2 months from Sistan all the way down to Baluchistan, and being enraptured by the majestic and hypnotic landscapes and welcomed by people still fueled with life and honor, I deeply feel these visceral impressions throughout my journey will stay with me forever.
Fruit Workers of Gorgan
This is a series I did in 2012 which was commissioned by the Sarv Art Project to Photograph the current condition of workers in the fruit market of Iran/Gorgan district. for every 1 Ton of fruit and veg they carry to unload or load trucks the workers get paid only 3000 Tomans which is less than a dollar, Children collecting Fallen Fruits from the ground or Trash and reselling them outside the Market, truck drivers are always on hold waiting to get loaded. I became interested in their personal writings behind their trucks which are a mix of poems, religious writings and moral slogans etc…which often depicts the workers personality and Nostalgic feelings towards his own life.
Alamut
Alamut is a region in Iran including western and eastern parts in the western edge of the Alborz (Elburz) massif, between the dry and barren plain of Qazvin in the south and the densely forested slopes of the Mazandaran province in the north. Starting from Qazvin toward Alamut, passing through the first range of hills, curvatures, forms, scars, wrinkles are significant themes in nature's composition of this area. Two big citadels of Ismailists, Lambsar and Alamut castles are in this area. In 1090 A.D, Hassan-i Sabbah the leader of Ismailites in Iran and his Hashashins (Assassins) controlled the area for many years. [Source]
I started photographing this unique and untouched area In Iran since june 2012 mainly with an analogue horizon camera and a medium format Holga trying to capture the spirit and mood of this region.