Pointless Hole 2012
Pointless Hole is a photography project that began after the Green Revolution in Iran, a period of great turmoil characterised by bloodshed, torture, and widespread arrests. The artist reflects on the profound changes that took place in her country during this time, observing that the city she once knew had become unrecognisable, like an alien landscape.
Despite the harsh restrictions placed on photography during this period in Tehran(and probably other cities in Iran) , the artist found a way to capture the essence of this new reality by creating pinhole cameras out of discarded boxes and using photography paper to take hidden black and white images of different spots in the city. This technique allowed her also to achieve a surreal and dreamlike effect that captured the feeling of disorientation that infected the city.
The project’s title, “Pointless Hole,” refers to the pinhole cameras that the artist created and also speaks to the sense of aimlessness and despair that characterised life during this disordered period. By using a simple and low-tech approach to capture images of the city, the artist aims to highlight the power of photography to document historical moments of suffocation, in the face of repression and censorship.