Aghigh Afkhami’s photographs bridge her current life in the United States and her childhood spent in Iran. Afkhami captures imagery that sparks her increasingly hazy recollections of Iran, drawing connections between her two homes and the experience of displacement.

Raised in a mythical land occupied for nearly 50 years by a repressive dictatorship, where mandatory laws covered up beauty and life. Their actions were rooted in hate, killing, and the denial of freedom. Despite immense government pressure, I lived in a place full of grace.The people I grew up with lived as freely as they could. We learned love and life beneath the surface of sadness. This land shaped my being, life, and memories.

-Lov- is about remembering. Migration’s detachment, the pain of leaving behind everything that created me. My past appears grainy and blurred. If a land is a mirage, then I, too, must be one. I attempt to recreate my brain’s archive of memories in a different landscape, rearranging fragments like writing in the language of fractured remembrance.

- Aghigh Afkhami

See more of Simon Martin’s work HERE

Learn more about the Life Framer Series Award HERE