Mitra Tabrizian - City, London 2008 Type C photograph on paper Edition of 5 48 x 98.5 in / 122 x 250 cm
Mitra Tabrizian - Tehran 2006, 2006 Type C photograph on paper Edition of 5Mitra Tabrizian’s exhibition of photographs at Leila Heller gallery is a series of stark formal compositions of people displaced within their environments, disengaged or trapped in contemplation.
Born in Tehran, Iran, Tabrizian lives in London and is familiar with the diaspora of Iranians living in exile, some of whom cannot return to their homelands – but identify with and share in a common virtual community.
Tabrizian likes to photograph her subjects in their isolation, lost in transitional spaces, at stations, within derelict and abandoned settings that emphasize their migrant status as economic and social outsiders. Often they seem caught in a tableau or arrested motion, in a protracted frozen moment.
A photograph taken at JP Morgan bank’s lobby during the height of the financial crises, depicts the bank’s associates with a sense of disconnection staring into the middle distance, each an island to themselves. Tabrizian has used actors in staged settings for her past works, but in this case she has used the actual bank’s employees to reflect the corporate culture which she reconstructs in her own view as a ‘cold and flat’ mise-en-scène.
Mitra Tabrizian - Lost Time Series 2002 Type C photograph on paper Edition of 5 48 x 60 in / 122 x 152 cm
For more information:
Leila Heller Gallery - Mitra Tabrizian Photographs June 7 – July 7, 2012
Mitra Tabrizian