Category: Literature & Arts

Iran, Nostalgia and Art

February 29, 2016

As a photographer, there has been nothing as satisfying as documenting my own country. Your connection to a place greatly impacts how you document it; how you decide to frame your shot, what you say before you take the image and what you might say after it. It’s not just my connection to the land, but my love and affection for the subjects I encountered that affected how my photographs turned out.

Inside Kureishi

August 23, 2014

The Buddha of Suburbia tells the story of Karim, who lives with his Indian father and English mother in the suburbs of 1970’s London. As a teenager, Karim struggles to find something that interests him, and it is only after his father leaves his mother for the beautiful and daring Eva, that his life begins to change, for the better, and for the worst. Hanif Kureishi brings us into Karim’s world, where the betrayal of his father leads to changes he has no control over, but must accept.

Poetry for the soul

May 30, 2013

I love Persian poetry. Mostly classic ones by legendary poets such as Rumi and Hafez. The following is by Iran’s most controversial and influential female poet of the twentieth century, Forough Farrokhzad. She was also a film director. Farrokhzad’s poetry was banned for over a decade after the Islamic revolution in Iran. She died in a car accident at age thirty-two. One of my favorite poems by her is posted below.