"Absolute" Tehran Cats

• Prize
  Bronze in Press/Political
• Photographer
  Karén Mirzoyan, Armenia
• Date of Photograph
  2026 January - February
• Studio
  Mirzoyan Library
• Instagram
  @mirzoyan_pro

Absolute: Tehran Cats is the series examining image-making under surveillance and restriction. Created in Tehran in early 2026, the project asks what can still be photographed while remaining unnoticed and safe. Photographing people was often impossible, pointing the camera 45 degrees downward toward cats is the only accessible subject. The 116 cats become witnesses to political and psychological conditions rather than portraits. Printed on discarded receipt paper, the images merge with traces of everyday commerce, reflecting photography as an act of survival under conditions of limitation.