Press Release
In Mohammadreza Mirzaei’s photographs, there is always a confrontation between “abstraction” and “pragmatism,” and of course between “entity” and “null” which he considers the essential traits of photography. In his upcoming exhibition, Newer Photographs, which opens two weeks after the publication of his new book in the US, by eliminating words, Mirzaei, once again invites the audience to view photographs that might very well be un-paraphrase-able.
Ordinary and routine matters are overlooked due to their continuous presence and overfamiliarity, and are at times promptly and at other times very hastily and without us noticing, replaced by alternatives. They are like a silent background to our life and existence. However in Mirzaei’s photographs, these very things look original and artificial as though they are a reflection of other things.
At the first encounter with his photographs, we are rarely confronted by narratives or an effort to create meaning, but a short while later, similarities and repetitions of certain elements, make us wonder about the possibility of the existence of conceptual and validity relations. Although some of his abstract images are eye catching, it is obvious that the photographer is not just after capturing the best form of the subject, and perhaps the forms are mostly designed to give rise to question rather than to discover and manifest beauty. Sometimes he is too close to the subject, or has exposed it to so much light that we can hardly say what that thing really is. And here, the title of the exhibition, the only descriptive words besides the works, may appear more important. But, he dawdles, as his photos do, and chooses the title, Newer Photographs for this exhibition, which especially after his previous exhibition New Photographs, seems like an oblique and absurd title.
Selected Works
