Amir Abdolizadeh

“My project, titled After Winter, explores Iranian culture and society. The book is suggestive, as it implies the senses of the culture through the simplicity and poetic approach. To enhance the narrative of the book, I decided to incorporate poetry from Iranian poets such as Forugh Farrokhzad and Rumi. These poems, along with the photographs, create a rhythm that plays a major role in understanding the narration of the book.Years away from my homeland made me think about how the distance altered my personality. I had gradually disregarded the way people live or even the way they would appear inside home since I moved to Toronto. / left the country. My own personal experience of forgetting my country motivated me to start developing my ideas. Not only were my thoughts of being away and forgetting about my country the spark to start this project, but a broader reason involving general perspectives also played a part in developing my concepts. This general view became more apparent to me when I understood that people outside of the Iranian community lack general knowledge about the actuality of Iran, meaning they could normally hear about the society from social media and the news. This misunderstanding often does not show a deeper level of humanity living there. Therefore, I went there to witness the warmth of the society with all its positive and negative aspects and to document people and places without applying a cliche but as a narrative.This work aims to invite the viewers to see things that cannot be seen normally if they are not in the country and encourages them to experience the culture and society of Iran.”