Stone and Its Shadow

Years ago, when I saw this picture, images of Irving Penn’s cigarette came to my mind—pictures that resembled Penn’s advertising style but aimed to reveal the death of loved ones whose bodies and souls had been claimed by cancer.

But today, when I look at this photograph by the Iranian photographer, the dialogues from Bahram Beyzai’s brilliant play The Death of Yazdegerd echo in my ears. The lines: “My companion was a stone placed beside another stone”^* and “Here they build grave upon grave for us; stone upon stone, and they firmly nail me”* come alive. And then I realize that in this picture, these two pieces of brick (bread) lie together to silently whisper something to me, to tell me that this photograph is rooted here, connected behind the scenes to what it has read, what it has heard, and what it has seen.

^*From The Death of Yazdegerd, Bahram Beyzai, Jom'e magazine, No. 15, Tehran, 1979 (1358).