Paris Photo 2022
Maryam Firuzi, Nazli Abbaspour, Khashayar Javanmardi, Hashem Shakeri, Morteza Niknahad, Ebrahim Noroozi
The winner of the 2022 IWPA Prize, Firuzi photographs women painters in the remains of abandoned buildings as a metaphor for her own universe. Nostalgia and fragility are the elements that Abbaspour uses in reference to a past that haunts his generation. Javanmardi, one of the winners of the Élysée Prize, depicts his country in an initiatory journey by rail. Beyond the question of the environment, Shakeri’s overexposed photographs inform us about the improbable conditions of regions abandoned to their fate. Niknahad devotes its series to African-Iranians who make up one of the minorities of southern Iran. Lake Orumieh (Urmia), photographed by Norouzi, is ranked among the largest salt lakes in the world. It is shrinking sharply, particularly due to global warming and the diversion of waterways.
Silk road’s artists are represented in side projects, Maryam Firuzi in Rossy de Palma and Nazli Abbaspour in spotlights on women in photography/Elles x Paris Photo.