THE 14TH RPS GRANTEE AMAK MAHMOODIAN

11/08/2016

We are pleased to announce that Amak Mahmoodian’s proposal “Shenasnameh” has been selected as the 14th grantee of Reminders Photography Stronghold Grant from 2016 August deadline submissions selected by our five commissioned judges, Peggy Sue Amison, Marie Lelievre, Michael Dooney, Giuseppe Oliverio and Dean Chapman.
We are now scheduling her exhibition in 2017, more news later!

©Amak Mahmoodian / the 14th RPS grantee

Shenasnameh Six years ago, I was waiting in a reception room, holding the birth certificates of my mother and myself, my eyes began to flick from the picture of my mother to the picture of myself, and back again.
A sudden realisation came upon me of what these pictures meant, of what they showed, and what they didn’t show.
My mother and I, for all our differences, were welded into one being.
I looked like my mother, and my mother looked like me.
But it went beyond that. All of a sudden I realised that all Iranian women were being restricted to look the same, like us; plain faces under hairless scarves.
That same day my fingerprint was fixed next to my image and my mother’s fingerprint was fixed next to her image.
But though the faces had become the same, the fingerprints were different.
After that day, I started collecting the Shenasnameh portraits of Iranian women, of family and friends.
And with the pictures I collected the fingerprints.
And gradually, different stories began to be told and the differences came through; both in the fingerprints but also in faces that, despite the restrictions that are placed around them, still claim individuality and person-hood; by a glint in the eyes, a turn of the mouth, or a raise of the brows.
And that is what this project is about: women who are individuals, women who are more than just a loose strand of hair.
A small part of her being can show how different she is from the others , she is herself.

©Amak Mahmoodian / the 14th RPS grantee

About Amak Mahmoodian. (b. 1980, IR) is an Iranian artist and curator.
She is a graduate in Photography and Documentary Photography (MA) from the Art University of Tehran, and in 2015 finished her PhD in Art and Photography from the University of South Wales, UK.
Her Work questions the identity, it expresses something personal, which pertains to a general issue.
In 2016 she published her first limitededition book, Shenasnameh, which received a special mention at Maribor Photobook Award, Slovenia and was a finalist for the Best British Book Design and Production of the year.
She has exhibited her different projects at Ffotogallery, Cardiff, Bristol, London and Goethe-Instut, Chennai. She lives and works in the UK. http://www.amakmahmoodian.co.uk

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