The Lesson of the Photograph

The photographer is a teacher*, and the subjects of the pictures are their students. The photographer teaches photography while simultaneously taking photographs, and through this, gives us another lesson. Photography is alive and it is life; photography flows within life. It also flows within itself — just like here, where each photograph touches another, as if trying to make space for itself and, at the same time, crowding the place of the other photograph.

But when these pieces come together, they expand the width of the photograph within the narrow and cramped classroom, and also widen our horizon. In this tight space, only one or two faces can be found. What is mostly visible are feet. Feet that long for movement. Feet that struggle to escape this confinement.

The fulfillment of this desire and struggle is neither far nor late.

^*I believe every photography student wishes to be a pupil of this teacher, Farhad Fakhrian, and sadly, most of us have been denied that privilege.