Near and Far

In the corner of the mind of every Iranian, there is a garden.
“Arthur Upham Pope (1881–1969), American expert on Iranian art”

Near and Far is a series of photo collages. Using geometric patterns common in Islamic art and architecture from the Middle East and North Africa as inspiration, the collages combine original photographs of both Iranian and American landscapes.

Traditionally, Western art depicts nature as a landscape; the horizon line is critical. With the advent of photography, time became an added element—the capture of a place in a single moment from a single human perspective. The traditions of the Persian miniature, in contrast, use a flattened perspective devoid of shadows, sunrises, or sunsets to allow audiences access to all angles, places, and times in one viewpoint. Building on the Eastern philosophy of the cyclical nature of the world, this tradition is less about describing an individual’s momentary perspective of the environment and more about expressing eternity.

As a project, Near and Far takes the Western traditions of nature photography and applies a Persian approach to perspective and geometry. The result is intricate photo collages that combine the two philosophies and create a visual dialogue between the nature of two cultures while presenting new, fantastical, and poetic interpretations of what a landscape can be.