The wind has blown from the East
Global Leadership Human Impacts Institute, Manhattan New York, 2018
Florida Museum of Photographic Arts, 2017
The wind has blown from the East captures the symbiotic relationship that all humans have with nature. For Iranians a garden represents the very essence of life. Gardens like oasis and natural surroundings and species around it like sparrows have been a symbolic motif found in many folkloric stories and poetries in southwest Iran. Ahwaz, the city I born, is a dry region and gardening outdoors specially because of hot sand storms has been limited in that terrain and more found in the small indoor. Desertification, war and industrial development affected our livelihoods and caused severe sand and dust storms affecting wide swathes of the province. At the time that I was putting together this series I wasn’t sure why I was so sad but as I was editing my work I was also leaving Iran. I had taken the pictures of the plants separately and I realized that it was also true to my own experience: I was uprooted from my homeland. The plant is part of me-because it represents my familial bonds and childhood, however, it is also forever separated as well.
