The Book
My first time in Iran...
I decided a few days before the flight to accompany a friend who was going to relocate there for a few months.
A new job in this chaotic fascinating city that to this day I love and I hate.
Two days only, two days only catipultated in the traffic, in the excruciating and suffocating heat of Iran.
Tour guided by a fascinating driver by the name of Ali that made me fall in love with the idea of a dream that became a reality through my photos.
Surrounded by the Azadi, the Bazaar, Traffic, rice, smog, the smell of baking bread and roasted chicken and pistachios - I spent two days of running back and forth, taking photos, enjoying laughter and hearing little stories. It was during the tiredness of the night bringing you out of your dreams ... it was during these moments of complete isolation and exhaustion that the inspiration and idea of the next photo came from and with this came a sense of comfort.
It was during this journey that I was captivated by the images of the kids in the schoolyard, the palace which was privately owned by the King in years gone by. I was affectionately embraced by the kids that gave me hugs and kisses like no other and asked me about about Francesco Totti and Alex Del Piero.
The same children presented the true face and innocence of this country.
This difficult country.
Not only a country made of extreme hospitality, affection, generosity ... that they can live in their confinement and continue to love and defend their country in front of everything and everyone.
It is these people that inspired me to keep returning time and time again whilst confronted by every imaginable difficulty to capture everything about them. Their smiles, their tiredness, dreams, souls their being and the essence of who they are as a people.
This is my Iran.
This is my 15 months of contact with the people which I would never have imagined would become my second family.
Anna Chiara Moggia
Instinctive, stubborn, generous and friendly. An independent and eclectic spirit constantly looking for new adventures and moments of life to be immortalized.
“The sole dependence” is the motto of the journey, of the thirst for discovery towards muffled and distorted cultures from the mediocre and conventional Western view.
A journey that began following the footsteps of a feeling, traces of which remain buried under the sands of Maranjab Desert.
A fascinating discovery through vociferous bazaars, cities with polychrome architecture, dung and mud villages and a handful of fresh pistachios to give life to animated conversations, wet by steaming cups of tea.
Former parliamentary reporter, with about half a century of life marked by cancer, I decided to abandon the political career andpursue one in photography. A succession of events favoring fate and leaving me captivated by fortuitous encounters with counselors approached by chance along the way, who have helped me nourish a latent passion and now, brought into vogue by a country that vaunts among its ruins the smile and the eye directed to the future of its unspeakable inhabitants.
This is Iran through my lens.
www.annachiaramoggia.com
