The children of Iran's gypsies: a lost childhood

• Prize
  Shortlist
• Photographer
  Basim Ghomorlou, Germany
• Date of Photograph
  November, 2019
• Category
  Asia
• Image Location
  Iran
• Socials
• Website
  http://basim.ir

Traveling to the desert, I stumbled upon a camp of gypsies on their way from Sistan to find low paid work in Khorasan. Opposite to traditional Iranian nomads, these people are characterized by their poverty, toughness and at times immoral demeanor. They allowed me to take photographs fo a few minutes and I focussed on capturing the living conditions of the many children in this camp. Small work-worn hands, ragged shoes and plastic patches on tents tell the story of their lost childhood.

• Biography
  Since 2000 Basim Ghomorlou (born 1984 in Iran) has traveled Iran’s nature, urban and rural areas to capture a country in transition. His work was shown in solo exhibitions in the Iranian Artists’ Forum (Khane Honarmandan) Tehran, the Isfahan Museum of Contemporary Art and galleries around the country. In 2011 he was the first photographer in Iran to organize a photo exhibition in a remote village in Khorasan, where he has taken photographs regularly for ten years. In 2016 he moved to Germany and continues his work in Europe and Iran
• Awards
  Exhibitions (year, gallery/museum, location, group or solo exhibition: title)  2007    Golestan Gallery, Mashhad/ Iran, solo exhibition: fine art nature 2008    Niavaran Gallery, Tehran/Iran, solo exhibition: black/white nature 2009    Artists‘ Forum Iran, Tehran/ Iran, solo exhibition: black/white nature 2009    Museum of Contemporary Art Isfahan, Iran, solo exhibition: black/white nature 2011    Golestan Gallery, Mashhad/ Iran,  with photographer Majid Bondar-Moghadam:  the winds‘ secret 2011    Open air exhibition in the village of Soltan Meydan, Iran, solo exhibition: Soltan Meydan 2012    Artin Art Gallery, Mashhad/Iran, solo exhibition: black/white nature 2015    Radin Art Gallery, Mashhad/ Iran, solo exhibition: waters 2016    Médiathèque André Malraux, Strasbourg/ France, group exhibition: Tehran – a metropolis 2017   Cinema Galeries, Brussels/Belgium, group exhibition: Expo Téhéran: une ville au pied des montagnes (L’heure d’hiver) 2018    University Bonn, Bonn/Germany, solo exhibition: without borders 2018    Monastery Fürstenfeldbruck, Germany, group exhibition: Nature Foto Days at Fürstenfeld 2019    Ravand Gallery, Mashhad/ Iran, solo exhibition: 120film (+ video art) 2019    THE ROOM Contemporary Art Space, Venice/Italy, group exhibition: visions 2019    Moya Gallery, Bonn/Germany, group exhibition: work space 2019    Museum Koenig, Bonn/Germany, group exhibition: highlights of nature photography 2019    Glaskarrée Gallery, Bonn/Germany, with painter Monique Jacquemin: Contemplate 2020    University Frankfurt, Frankfurt-Main/Germany, solo exhibition: Soltan Meydan