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Women Behind the Lens: ‘After State Massacres, I Began Burning the Prints as an Act of Mourning’
Iranian visual journalist Parisa Azadi set her images alight in response to January’s violent repression by the regime, not to erase them, but to convey ‘rage, grief and refusal’
TL;DR
- The artist documented the Iranian revolution from Dubai, unable to return to Iran.
- She used an instax camera to photograph protest footage directly from her computer screen, turning digital images into physical prints.
- This process aimed to interrupt the flow of digital images and transform ephemeral pixels into solid objects.
- The artist's earlier work in Iran involved giving instax portraits to strangers as keepsakes, a practice now infused with new urgency.
- A photograph from a Tehran protest shows a young woman's silhouette against smoke, embodying urgency and testimony over perfection.
- The artist embraces the 'poor image' as a politically potent form of testimony, departing from her usual documentary style.
- After state massacres and executions in January 2026, the artist began burning the instax prints as an act of mourning.
- Burning the prints was intended not as erasure, but as a way to convey rage, grief, and refusal.