In a stormy day of 2007, Abbas Kiarostami decided to escape from Teheran: "I packed my bag without forgetting my camera and digital video camera. The rain keeps falling from yesterday dotted by lightening, this will not change my decision". Inside the car, the Iranian filmmaker takes shots of urban and rural landscapes. This series of pictures shows us throughout the flowing of rain on the windscreen, high silouettes of soacked trees, and the trembling lights of cars or a yellow wall of the street side. Coloured images in which greys and blacks predominate, like paintings.
Filmmaker, photographer and poet, Abbas Kiarostami was born 22 June 1940 in Tehran, is known since the early 1990s as on of the most important director of contemporary cinema. Palme d'Or at Cannes in 1997 for "Tam-e gilas" (Taste of Cherry), two years later he received the Grand Special Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival for "Bad ma ra khahad bord" (The Wind Will Carry Us). His photos have been exhibited worldwide, including London, Victoria & Albert Museum and New York, MoMA, or, in 2007-2008, the Centre Pompidou in Paris and in five Chinese cities.
Scans source: Abbas Kiarostami - Pluie et Vent. Préface de Christian Boltanski. Gallimard, 2008.
ReplyDeletewonderful photos, janas - thanks for scanning + sharing them! some of them really look like impressionistic paintings, half abstract beauty. the fact that the focus is entirely on the window drops of the windshield makes most of the mystery - the landscape behind becomes source for color, the contrast is on water and since one can see through, the drops also function as small lenses. fascinating. and on the other hand this is all normal - everybody driving in a car knows this, many will be annoyed by not seeing properly, which is dangerous while driving.
ReplyDeletei've seen kiarostami movies, and some of them really touched me, but less emotionally than intellectual. some of jafar panahi's movies really blew me - but i have the feeling they're "easier" than kiarostami's.
lucky
Hi, dear Lucky,
ReplyDeletewelcome to my blog! I appreciate your fascinating thoughts about these images. Thanks.
What I like is the idea of capturing the hidden imaginative power of scenery of a travel which usually we leave behind us, a world of signs that flowing away.
Nice blog, just came across it by chance -- love the photography!
ReplyDeleteHello, Larry. You're always welcome (since the time of SFRP)!
ReplyDeleteThanks for your kind comment.
What a photographs. For me these are all inspiration for watercolor paintings.
ReplyDeleteWelcome, Suchismita,
ReplyDeletethanks for the comment. I am glad that these photos serve as an inspiration for you.
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