Ashkan Honarvar

An interesting take on a project I similarly had in photo3 is found in a series by Ashkan Honarvar. Much of his work really focuses on the human body. In this particular series: Identity Lost (series one and two) he has taken medical photographs—that are much akin to driver's license photos—and pursued the collage technique that relies heavily upon the silhouettes of the pieces themselves.

This forces the image composition to have a much higher value than the original subject matter, the individual. According to his statement this "reduces the people to objects, without personality." And borderline offers some interesting take on how we look at other people, are they beautiful, are they repulsive? What is human?

It does create a range of images that some may find repulsive, but easily allowing for reflection of life, and death in much of his work. Much of his work may not seem to deal with the most uplifting or positive content, but it often involves very real content, the type of subject matter that is often difficult to look at or that many would chose to avoid. His Unnatural Death golden collage series focuses first on individual who have taken their own life, the extensive Ubakagi series focuses on rape and its aftereffects; Finding Hitler is based upon a John Lennon quote that everyone has a Jesus and a Hitler inside of them.

So on those cheery notes, have a happy Monday!