Tehran "Black Clouds"

• Prize
  Gold in Press/Other
• Photographer
  Karén Mirzoyan, Armenia
• Date of Photograph
  February 2026
• Studio
  Mirzoyan Library
• Instagram
  @mirzoyan_pro

Black Clouds centers on protest graffiti systematically obscured by Basij and police interventions. What began in 2014 as an observation of accidental abstraction—coverings resembling clouds and geometric forms—returns in images made on 2026 February 27, the eve of US-Israeli bombings, during a rare moment of access. Across approximately 40 walls, acts of erasure transform language into silence. Words are concealment exposes control, as gestures of suppression become unintended compositions hovering between violence and image.