Enclosure

Photography is a simple and easy way to see the world and to produce images. But sometimes—though this “sometimes” is not so rare—these simple photographs become complicated. Sometimes these simple photographs become covered up. They say photography is a transparent window to the world. But sometimes, like this picture, nothing is transparent. The space is closed from above and below, and gray from right and left. Whatever there is, it is covered. The vehicle is covered with a tent, and the woman is wrapped in a chador. Amid this complexity and covering, the image remains vague, blurry, and ambiguous. It is hard, in this ambiguity, to find a meaningful relationship between this woman and that vehicle, and this ground and that wall. That’s exactly why we stay with the photo and in its closed, static structure, we sway among the twisting waves of the vehicle’s tent and the woman’s chador, suspended in the desire to find that distant, elusive meaning. And that very meaning and moment is exactly what this photograph is about.