From the beginning of the history of the visual arts, especially photography, art has always been a way of reflecting the spirit and inner states of the artist, and one can never separate a collection or a work of art from the artist and his spirits. In examining the works of dear Pouria Berenji, a 21-year-old photographer living in Rasht, this subject is clearly significant. In general, you can see Pouria’s thoughts and mood in every frame of his latest collection, Gone, but not forgotten. This collection, which consists of six frames, was taken during the photographer’s trip with his friends to Bandar-e Anzali.
According to Pouria himself, sometime before this trip and the starting of this collection, his life was like an aimless boat in a boundless ocean that was raised and lowered by the turbulent waves. But just before this trip, with an important decision, his life enters a new direction.
“It was a launching pad for my narration and transformation of my photography.”
but some time before the trip, he was very skeptical about his decision. On the second day of this trip, Pouria and five of his friends went from Rasht, a beautiful city in Iran, to Bandar-e Anzali to take photos during the day in addition to seeing the beauties of this port. On the way from the Ghazian Bridge to the Anzali breakwaters, walking in this port while they were listening to their favorite music, caused them to experience the passionate and memorable moments that Sepehr, a friend of Pouria, refers to as “Immortal” moments.
The sad and at the same time the strange atmosphere of Anzali breakwaters made all six photographers to photograph and capture these current moments. At the end of the trip, while Pouria was transferring the photos to his hard drive, he noticed a connection between some of his photos and his mental conflict about that important decision that he had made before the trip.
In the end, to convey these feelings through his photographs, he creates a collection of six frames from the photographs of this trip. Saeed, one of Pouria’s companions, is present in four frames of this series, and it is interesting that the second frame of this series was taken by Saeed with Pouria’s camera, although according to Pouria: “Saeed is still unaware of this case”.
Each of these six frames reflects his inner thoughts and spirits in a certain way, and we read the following conversations of dear Pouria about each of these photos:
“The first frame represents the beginning and thinking of a subject that I have created in my mind. The second frame shows my view of my surroundings and the inception of decision-making. In the third frame, I am thinking about my decision in utter seriousness. In the fourth frame, I doubt the certainty of the decision and get involved in the past affairs (a battle between the mind and the heart). The fifth frame shows the apprehension caused by the decision. And the last frame indicates going forward and making the final decision.”
Eventually, this trip caused this young photographer to show his thoughts and moods of each period of his lifetime through his photographs and to narrate his lived experiences in a special way in each series that he’s making. Also, he is completing two long-term projects and one medium-term project currently, and I am personally very interested in seeing his new collections and narratives..
Photography Pouria Berenji