When I read The Fruits of the Earth by André Gide1 at the age of 15, I never thought that a quote from that book would sink so deep into my soul that it would remain forever in my life, my mind and my outlook. Wonder must be in your gaze, not in what you look at’. I looked at the world with wonder. Unconsciously at first, but gradually it became conscious. I wanted to see the world with new eyes and not as I was used to. I tried to show others things that amazed me, and I tried to protect them as much as I could. By chance or faith, I discovered image and I began trying to capture my world through them and with my own efforts and within my time add meaning to the world’.2 I tried, and I longed to see anew. Sometimes I succeeded and sometimes not. But that never mattered to me, as I have always been so thrilled by the act of seeing, so immersed in the excitement of capturing what I see and what I feel, that obstacles and external bitterness never deterred or disappointed me. It’s so good that pictures do not let us forget the moments. While preparing this book, I felt a deep sense of satisfaction and pride in what I had witnessed, captured and created, as if it had all unfolded in the blink of an eye.
But, am I truly finished? Has it all come to an end? Books like this are often published after an artist’s death or when their creative abilities have waned. And here I am, at the onset of the winter of my life, standing on the edge of the end—am I truly finished? Where does the end lie?” Today, and one day, my photos will be testimonies to many forgotten names. My photos will be testimonies to events that have long passed, to many beauties and beings that no longer exist. They are my eyes, looking at you, today and in the future. One day my photos will be the testimony of a nation that fought for freedom. One day my photos will be a testimony to the men and women, the cotton pickers who sowed for years under the sun and rain but never reaped. My photos will be a testimony to the fishermen whose nets were always empty. In my photos you will see women and children who have bent over saffron flowers at every dawn of their lives. My photos will be testimonies of women who have spent years stringing tobacco leaves, yet never wore a necklace of their own. Oh ‘Maidens of the fields! Maidens of awaitment! Perhaps one day my photos will continue their calling without me, but even then, I will exist, somewhere else. On the day that my body ceases to exist, I see the girls in the green fields of Iran, in the vast deserts of Iran, in the rainy forests of Iran and in the high snowy mountains that I have stepped on, with their cameras ready to capture all the beauties, they are my continuations, I am with them, have no doubt!
If you see a pair of anxious eyes searching for life, that is me! If you see a woman covering her hair with a lotus or large tobacco leaves, that is me! If you see someone weeping for the severed acacias, that is me! And if someone is driving through the roads of Iran, it is definitely me. When I drive along the roads of Iran and pass our fields and farms, our herds of cows, sheep and horses, the women and men who work and build effortlessly in the heat and the cold, I feel rich, fulfilled and in love. When the sun sets on the wheat farms or on the sea, when the mist goes down in the forest and the sunflowers face the sun, I feel that death does not exist. The road is infinite and my camera and I will go on forever. (I once took a photo of a rebellious sunflower that had turned its face away from the sun!) Driving on the roads of Iran, I am filled with a bittersweet happiness and a profound sense of belonging. The road is a symbol and a feeling of renewal, of discovering new aspects of nature, of meeting people I didn’t know, of the excitement of seeing things others don’t see, and above all, of leaving and not staying. I know that my strength lies in love, love for all the little things I have done to understand and reach beauty and truth, and trying to reflect what I feel and grasp rather than just what I see. I lift my camera and fly over the green fields of Iran. I will never end because I breathe through this land, because my eyes care for this land, because my soul runs through this land. I am the eternal spirit of a love. The Buddha said be a light unto yourself, radiate boundless love towards the entire world, beauty and kindness make the world a better place. I was my own light, radiating boundless love to beauty, to Iran and to life.
July 2025
Maryam Zandi 