Atefeh Alaeddin

MFA, Sandberg Institute, Amsterdam

Collector: Amirbahador Bayat

When I started this series, I had just settled in a new city and everything was strange to me. It was the second semester that I started to get familiar with my surroundings. Little by little, I learned the names of the streets and was able to get on the subway and go to other places of the city without constantly checking the map. However, my connection with the city and its people was not yet enough. Even my own knowledge of myself was more strange and blurry. I started to communicate with others through my camera. I thought this way I can talk to people and know my subjects better. I always believed that photography can bring the subject out of strangeness. It has always been a discussed concept about photography.
I bought some disposable analogue cameras and started walking in the city. At the same time that I was finding new places, I tried to find someone close enough to communicate with. It was so difficult to get close to people that you have no idea if they would accept to spend some time with or talk to. Anyway, I gave those cameras to three people, all of the same gender and same age as me, and ask them to shot whatever they want and then give it back to me.
The negative point was that I just had one month to give my work to the university. I had no enough information about those three people to be in contact with, and as two of them had no trust in me to give me their numbers, I just had to wait for them to call me. Simultaneously, I put myself in their places and stated taking pictures based on the feelings and information I got from them., as I was imagining what images they may shot, and what they look would be.
After I got the cameras back, I put my own story and photographs beside theirs. My aim was to cut the distance between the subject and the photographer and narrate a story that I was not sure how clear or imaginary would be. Who the story is about and by whom is it narrated? Which photo belongs to whom? How much you can get to know the subject and how strange she would remain? And finally, how much of people’s private space can be seen and from where we are not more allowed to?