The Color is Black

6 minutes

My photography, video, and installation-based work is engaged with the oppression of women and denial of identity. Many women suffer visibly and invisibly in contemporary cultures around the world, and are often subjected to profound restrictions that attempt to eliminate them as individuals by controlling their identity, freedom, movement, and expression.

My emphasis is on the color black as a visual metaphor since black suppresses and obscures the individual and indicates the absence of light. I walk on the edge of the shadow. Yet, in that moment, I cannot imagine my own freedom and selfhood where I am able to move from darkness and into the light because I am at risk. Historically, black is an extreme color that has been used as a symbol of mourning and darkness. I use both barren landscapes to represent a sense of powerlessness, as well as water as symbolic pathways to escape to freedom.

Zahra Ghasemi: Camera Assistant. Bagher Ghorbani: Producer Zia Ghiasi: Sound.

Submitted by Anahid Ghorbani