Reading for Tehran Streets

Vitruvius, the Roman architect, described three kinds of stage settings: tragic, comic and satyric. In Tehran, the street usually looks more like the first.

I often take refuge at home, among the books that cover my walls, and leave my imagination there when I go out. Like everyone, I cross the city quickly, thinking only of where I am going. The streets are made for passing through, not for stopping. What they lack is room for our imaginations, which could join together and shape the city’s shared memory.

So I go out and do the opposite: I sit in the street and read. For a moment, I let my imagination mingle with the city, and the camera freezes that moment. Perhaps imagination can make us stop, look at one another, and turn the street, if only briefly, into a place for reflection and encounter.