Series - FotoSlovo 2026 - Category « Conceptual photography »

Absolute is a photographic series produced under conditions of restriction, surveillance, and limited mobility in Tehran during January and February. In a context where public presence was heavily scrutinized, the artist identified street cats as the only subjects that could be observed and photographed without attracting attention. Neither people nor birds could be approached without risk—only cats moved freely, beyond questioning or control.

This constraint shaped both the visual language and methodology of the series. Initial experiments with a thermal paper camera proved too visible, prompting a shift to an iPhone as a more discreet tool. The images were then printed on receipt paper, embedding them within the material culture of everyday transactions. This choice was not only aesthetic but strategic: fragile prints could be concealed among used receipts, allowing them to pass unnoticed across borders.

The series reflects a condition where visibility is negotiated and survival depends on subtlety. Cats become silent witnesses of the urban environment, occupying spaces where human presence is restricted. Their autonomy contrasts with the limitations imposed on the artist, while the medium—ephemeral, easily erased, and portable—mirrors the precarity of the moment.

In Absolute, both subject and material are shaped by necessity. The work emerges from a negotiation with control, where image-making becomes an act of adaptation, concealment, and persistence.