MehdiMoghimnejad

Verisimilitudes

Chapter one: A long scattered Daydream(2000 to Present)

Since 2000 I’ve focused of the project Verisimilitudes. On my personal view it’s my most important project. Verisimilitudes could been take as a bridge between realism of my documentary photography and imagination of earlier photomontages.
Making photographs of chapter one: A long scattered Daydream took 8 years from 2002. My approach to the subject could be related to Freud comments on concept of Daydream. This thought can be applied on either this chapter or whole project.
Single photographs of this chapter have no common elements and each one of them is trying to remake a picture from dreams or personal memories. The final photograph is a new reality which could not be differs from the real world. It seems artist is trying to find his identity through looking at Iranian historical places and landscapes.
The photos of this collection are in the same direction with historical tradition of manipulated photographs. These works are photo-montages formed on the basis of my own photos. Usually having a pre-visualization in my mind, I take different photos and then using Photoshop software to assemble them. I try to recreate reality for the viewer and it felt like looking at a documentary photos or snapshots.
Therefore like hyper-real paintings here also we deal with very precise treatment of details and a difficult method of picture creation. Thus these photos may be considered as belonging to photographic reality, virtual reality or as philosophers call it, simulacrum. I usually choose elements for my work which are somehow associated with my memory. In many works, landscapes are very important and architectural elements and buildings play a significant role in some photos. I spend lots of time to find proper locations and I usually select motifs with Iranian and historical identity. Then I manipulate the spaces in a post-photography stage, to assimilate them with my dreams and imaginations. Whenever it seems to be necessary I let some other new independent elements to enter my work to complete the space. In selection and combination of the elements both pictorial and semantic issues are important for me.
These photos do not have common subjects, and each photo is in search of a new idea; however I feel a common theme could be found. I think concepts such as solitude, destruction, nostalgia and hope are the main keywords of my works. In my photos there is no sign of human presence. Ambiguity is my permanent motivation for creation of such pictures. Sometimes I think in many of these photos, some reflections of my own dreams link with an Iranian collective unconscious, so that my nostalgia towards my own memories becomes nostalgia towards the historical past of this country.