In psychoanalysis, an ‘imago’ is defined as an unconscious, idealized mental image of another person that can influence one’s behavior. The emphasis is on the unconscious and the idealized. We consume images nonstop, some which disappear into the ether and others which become forever associated with events, put into history books, and kept in archives.
But how often do we consciously think of these images and our own readings of them? What if we took a closer look and pushed beyond simply ‘seeing’ images from the past and instead ‘encountered’ them, bringing our full selves to the process? Would we relate to, question, or challenge the stream of images we have been served and rethink our tidy, universal readings of them?
An interest in understanding how historical images influence our perception of history—both in unconscious and idealized ways—fuels the work of the Iranian-born, US-based artist Mehrdad Mirzaie. Working intensively with archives he explains: “I think archives are among the most valuable human documents that, when referenced, allow individuals to build a brighter future based on the past. Archives serve as repositories of our collective experiences, offering insights into various aspects of human existence across time. They provide us with a lens to reflect on our journey as a society, helping us learn from past successes and failures, ultimately guiding us toward a more informed and enlightened future.”
Mirzaie’s long-term project Imago focuses on images of Iranian individuals, outspoken critics as well as those swept up in protests, who have been killed or have disappeared due to socio-political circumstances. Consisting of two sections, Rereading and Body, the project is, in the artist’s own words, “a long-term archival endeavor that seeks to contemplate the idea of mental imagery and historical images.”
The Rereading section is composed of images Mirzaie has made from reproductions of photographs considered historically significant in relation to politics, society, and the study of photography. The Body section of the project features images of individuals that hold deep significance to the artist. Here, the photographer recreates their images, piecing together a personal archive. “I believe one of the most important roles of an artist concerning archives is their reinterpretation,” he notes.
In his approach to archives, Mirzaie has found that alternative photography processes provide a myriad of possibilities to encounter these images anew. Throughout his practice, he has experimented with cyanotypes, salt prints, transfer images and polaroids as well as collotypes. In combining these various processes with silver gelatin and digital prints Mirzaie’s images have an almost timeless quality that fuses past and present.
“These processes offer me the opportunity to create a version of archival images while simultaneously allowing me to infuse my personal perspective by introducing alterations to these images,” Mirzaie explains. This question of perspective bubbles up throughout his work, reframing our relationship to the past as active and deeply personal. “I think each individual’s encounter with archives adds a new layer of meaning to them—a meaning inherent in the act of interpretation. Every reading takes place through a unique lens and, consequently, every human being’s interpretation of these archives can differ.”
The project features names known to some but new to others: Mohamad Mokhtari, an Iranian writer, poet, and leftist activist, who fought against censorship and was murdered in 1998. Froozan Abdi, a member of the national volleyball team who was arrested and executed alongside other political prisoners in 1988, appears in a group image constructed out of multiple sheets in sepia and bluish-black tones.
At times, Mirzaie’s images will include a bit of text. We are informed in one piece that we are seeing the last moments of a woman killed as she filmed a protest. In another, we see the former Prime Minister of Iran, Mohammad Mosaddegh’s response to his sentence of solitary confinement: “The verdict of this court has increased my historical glories. I am extremely grateful you convicted me. Truly tonight the Iranian nation understood the meaning of constitutionalism.” Mosaddegh nationalized the oil industry and introduced many social reforms before he was ousted by a CIA-backed coup in 1953. He is rendered here in deep cyanotype blues, ghostly on the page.
In placing these images in new contexts, Mirzaie prompts audiences, who may not have historical knowledge of these events to ask the question: what is this image about, and why should I, as a viewer, engage with it? Using various alternative processes and collage, he describes his aims “to challenge the audience with the processes I choose to reproduce the image, inviting them to contemplate the subject it presents through distortion, elimination, alteration, and even fragmented reassembling of the images.”
Cropped close and almost foggy at times, the faces of young people resurface throughout the work, prompting the viewer to both get closer and step back. In a grid installation, a woman is depicted in the softest of focus, she raises her right arm during one of the ‘Woman, Life, Freedom’ protests that swept through Iran in 2022. Composed of multiple sheets of paper the image feels monumental and powerful but also fragile, the paper edges curling ever so slightly. In another, black and white images of a woman’s back, pierced with holes, are layered over each other, the effect bringing the figure into three-dimensional form before our eyes.
Mirzaie’s complex image arrangements are the products of an intense studio-based work process. “These arrangements are always constructed and dismantled within the studio space. Viewers are only presented with the documented image. This is significant to me as I aim to emphasize my viewpoint. I want to compel the audience to contemplate the idea that a historical image can always be subjected to distortion, alteration, and manipulation,” he says. “I exaggerate this act to prompt the audience to think more deeply about historical facts and images. Are our perceptions of history the same? Can they be identical? How accurately can we comprehend history?”
Through these material interventions, the photographer forms a new point of connection to the past. His images, fragmented, layered, and blurred speak to the process of memory and experience itself—distortive, personal, and complex.
Mehrdad Mirzaie is a winner of the LensCulture Emerging Talent Awards 2023. Follow this link to discover all 25 winners of these prestigious international photography awards.
