2023-09-11 12:25:52
The Iranian photographer, born in Kabul, presents his work in Afghanistan in Perpignan, on the deep social crisis reignited by the return of the Taliban.
In a simplistic way, Visa has been criticized for its image of feasting on all the misery in the world. If it was necessary to bring grist to the mill of detractors, the subject of Ebrahim Noroozi arises there, with its literal title, disarming in its simplicity: “The saddest country in the world and the worst country for women”. Welcome to Afghanistan. “His work was a revelation for me, a big shock,” concedes Jean-François Leroy, who has nevertheless seen others… and had not until then looked into the career of this Iranian photographer, born in Kabul in 1980. “And it wasn’t even his agency, Associated Press, that drew my attention to him, but Manoocher Deghati [grande figure franco-iranienne du photojournalisme, ndlr]», Specifies the festival director.
In activity since 2004, Ebrahim Noroozi – who received several international awards in the 2010s – has a preference for social themes. Also, his vision of Afghanistan (where he stayed for a long time), as it has once again fallen under the barbaric rule of the Taliban since 2021, appears as desperate as it is chilling, which describes without pretense or exaggeration, a daily slavery life. where, dictated by a repressive ideology, survival is organized from which it is difficult to imagine the slightest escape. Near a village, workers dig stony ground with their bare hands or with rudimentary tools (to find what? Mystery…) under the supervision of a turbaned and armed guard; while, sending civilization back a few centuries, a 4-year-old girl sleeps outside, on the rockery, in front of the chimney of the brickworks that operates her – when her little comrades in misfortune are busy with shovels almost twice times larger than them. Elsewhere, it is also a question of women who, even in their leisure activities (soccer, martial arts, cycling) the burqa removes from any link with the outside world, or of drug addicts whom the authorities herd into a concentration camp world. A lucid – and technically very mastered – dive into the heart of darkness, Ebrahim Noroozi’s exhibition is indeed despairing, as much as it is essential. On Saturday evening, his work was awarded the Visa d’or magazine by the festival.
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