Project Title: " Deathbed "
Despite the project name, the images of these salvaged cars
photographed are not documented in direct allusion to the
deathbeds of humans, morgues, or even crime-scene photos.
When I stepped foot into the auto junkyard world, with its churchly
order of rows upon rows of irreparable machines, I entered a kind
of purgatory. The vehicles in this photo series are depicted as if
museum objects, yet unlike museum objects these wrecked cars
are not to be physically preserved intact for posterity, but will be
crushed for reuse in another form. The photo is the only
document of the auto in this unique, temporary state: after its
useful life, before it is reincarnated into recyclable material. What
information is captured in these images? A glimpse of the
nebulous phase of a manmade thing, with remnants of brand
choice and societal status, with evidence of family and pride,
categorized indifferently with grease-pencil marks. In Deathbed,
the photo is a relic, a relic of a car relinquished to the junkyard to
be held until it is no longer a car.
Born in Tehran, Iran.
Currently residing in Los Angeles, California.
