A Child Named Joy

When I refer back to my visual memory, almost everything I recall about the night celebrations of the Iranian people (over the past 46 years) mostly relates to a kind of emotional outburst during sports, political, and religious/ideological events. In this picture, we also witness the collective joy of a group of national football team supporters. But the darkness and enclosed space, along with the trance-like, intoxicated happiness of these young people, evoke for me the atmosphere of a nighttime party—a scene that is often explored in unofficial histories.

All my preconceived notions and stereotypical images of street joy after football are deconstructed in this photo and enter a new conceptual realm. As I look at the picture, despite its contradictions, all colors, signs, and symbols collapse, and a kind of nakedness pervades the entire space. We are at the peak of a collective dance—a moment when these people have stepped outside of public conventions and, at the unconscious level, have attuned their bodies to the rhythm of a street celebration.

In sum, this passionate and joyous frame is a flicker of happiness within a vast darkness; it recalls a poem by Shafiei Kadkani:

A child named Joy, has long been lost

With bright shining eyes

With long hair, reaching the heights of desire,

Anyone who has a sign of her,

Let them inform us

Here is our sign:

One side, the Persian Gulf

The other side, the Caspian^*.