Silence, Memory Shape Tavakolian’s Cinematic Photo Festival Opening

Hyderabad: Silence, memory and the slow labour of looking opened the 11th Indian Photo Festival (IPF) here on Thursday, where Iranian photographer Newsha Tavakolian spoke about the “inner weather” that guides her images. “Silence allows me to process,” she said and added, “I photograph what happens between words, between gestures, between the visible and the hidden.”

The hall listened as she spoke of entering a “foggy headspace” that lets her sit with difficult moments until they reveal something intangible. “I try my best to bring them into focus,” she added, recalling the blurry childhood photographs.

The 11th IPF opened with the talk by Tavakolian, member of Magnum Photos and best known for her work on women’s lives, conflict, censorship and emotional interior of the people of Iran.

Goethe Zentrum director and honorary consul Amita Desai, National Geographic photo editor Julie Hau and festival founder Aquin Mathews gathered for the inauguration before the audience settled for the Iranian photographer’s talk.

Her talk wandered across Iran, Iraq and the long practice of returning to a subject until it unsettles her enough to begin again. The audience heard her describe her change after 2008, when she said “I was without a job for one year” and “artistic photography kind of became for me the way that I breathed.”

Her reflections on women’s voices were woven with her own detours. She recalled how she created her project ‘Listen’ and said, “in Iran it's still forbidden for women to sing in public” and she added “these women are not legally allowed to record or perform music publicly.”

Tavakolian’s work with young survivors of ISIS abductions entered the talk as well when she said “the mother that all her kids were abducted” and she described the pain of meeting teenagers whose faces she often could not show.

On her book ‘Blank Pages of an Iranian Photo Album’, she said it was “not just about the absence in our albums” but that it was “about the refusal to let others fill those pages”. Explaining why, she said: “I walked away and gave back the £50,000 prize money” when a patron tried to dictate her narrative.

Tavakolian also spoke about her “foggy headspace” where, under pressure, “everything moves slowly but clearly”. She explained, “A photograph stops time, while video lets time move”, as she talked about slow video installations that ask viewers to sit with unease.

The festival runs till January 4 at the State Art Gallery and partner venues and brings together exhibitions, workshops, talks, portfolio reviews and grants. Aquin said the open call this year received work from “almost 50 countries” and that National Geographic reviews have already helped “Twenty-two of the photographers who have attended the Natgeo reviews and workshop” to receive support “to a tune of Rs.20 million.”

Tavakolian closed her talk returning to the ethics of looking, something that drives most photographers, and said “What we need more than ever in this world we are living is the empathy towards each other.”