Winners of the Alfred Fried Photography Award 2016
Reading for Tehran Streets
Alfred Fried Photography Award – Winner Alfred Fried Photography Award Medail
Maryam Firuzi, Iran: Reading for Tehran streets The street, says Iranian filmmaker and photographer Maryam Firuzi, quoting the Roman architect Vitruvius, could be the site of tragedy, comedy and satire. For her, the streets of her home town of Tehran are more a site of turmoil and sadness. In contrast, the walls of her flat provide a protective space for her imaginings and dreams. And yet, Firuzi has taken to the streets, turned a folding chair into a throne and women into an unassailable, self-absorbed queens. Staged, of course. A fairy tale. Women with a book in their hands. Reading! If people would read more, Firuzi claims, if they read mostly poems, the world would be a more peaceful, a better place. Because reading would make you more tolerant, create empathy with others, understanding for a life other than your own. Maryam Firuzi, born in Shiraz, Iran, in 1986, turned early to literature and painting, later to Persian calligraphy. She has a Diploma in Mathematics, a Bachelor in Software Engineering. She studied at the Art School in Tehran, finishing with a Master in Cinema and Film Studies. In one of her films she explored the impact of Ginsberg’s poems on young people in Iran during the Islamic Revolution. She is particularly interested in freedom and the voices of women in society. The struggle for the right of women to move about freely. A typical photograph is that of 24-year-old actress Mahsa at the Persian Gulf. It shows the young woman without hijab, and Firuzi says, “It’s like being born again.” (Text by Peter-Matthias Gaede)
Photos by Maryam Firuzi
Alfred Fried Photography Award – Winner Alfred Fried Photography Award Medail
Maryam Firuzi, Iran: Reading for Tehran streets The street, says Iranian filmmaker and photographer Maryam Firuzi, quoting the Roman architect Vitruvius, could be the site of tragedy, comedy and satire. For her, the streets of her home town of Tehran are more a site of turmoil and sadness. In contrast, the walls of her flat provide a protective space for her imaginings and dreams. And yet, Firuzi has taken to the streets, turned a folding chair into a throne and women into an unassailable, self-absorbed queens. Staged, of course. A fairy tale. Women with a book in their hands. Reading! If people would read more, Firuzi claims, if they read mostly poems, the world would be a more peaceful, a better place. Because reading would make you more tolerant, create empathy with others, understanding for a life other than your own. Maryam Firuzi, born in Shiraz, Iran, in 1986, turned early to literature and painting, later to Persian calligraphy. She has a Diploma in Mathematics, a Bachelor in Software Engineering. She studied at the Art School in Tehran, finishing with a Master in Cinema and Film Studies. In one of her films she explored the impact of Ginsberg’s poems on young people in Iran during the Islamic Revolution. She is particularly interested in freedom and the voices of women in society. The struggle for the right of women to move about freely. A typical photograph is that of 24-year-old actress Mahsa at the Persian Gulf. It shows the young woman without hijab, and Firuzi says, “It’s like being born again.” (Text by Peter-Matthias Gaede)
Photos by Maryam Firuzi
