Sanaz Sohrabi – Are Images Ever Innocent?

3. 3. 2022

Sanaz Sohrabi, Sanaz Sohrabi, Declassified CIA pdf document “DOC_0000268293”, Redacted graphite replication from page 9, lower bottom. Unspecified technical information about navy ships. Digitized large format, printed on vinyl Phototex, dimension variable, 2019

Although it might sometimes seem that way, photographs never exist in themselves. And this is doubly true of those made by machines or for archival or documentary purposes. As the art of Sanaz Sohrabi demonstrates, images (and particularly reproduced images) are part of often unwanted testimony embedded into dense nets of relationship. In her work, the artist then untangles these threads and reweaves them into artfully crafted rugs.

Whether this means photographs, archival film footage, or images downloaded from the internet, Sanaz Sohrabi almost always works with images not of her own making. For her, the “image” is a foundational building block and a space that contains an infinite number of questions. Already in her earlier works, such as Auxiliary Mirrors (2016), Sohrabi attempted to come to terms with the fact that the status of representation is always subordinate to some tradition. At the same time, her work reflects a process that takes place when images circulate in a new manner, i.e. the transfer of the original (and, in Sohrabi’s case, often ideological) meaning, or its dissolution, peeling off, or pasting over.

Sohrabi’s art thus supports the notion that both the “second life” of images and their further layers of meaning are indelibly linked to the existence of photographs and videos, and not only at the moment of their notional birth, i.e. at the moment when they were taken, but also long before then. They are thus both random and intentional witnesses to a particular visual tradition but also to the dominant ideological or period narrative, serving as an imprint of the collective unconscious and memory. An interesting example of her work with images as evidence and representation is the 2018 project Script for Groundless Images. For this piece, Sohrabi selected material from an archive which the American Congress maintains of video interviews with veterans from the Gulf War, as well as other conflicts in the Middle East in which the US was involved. This is an archive “squared”, as the speakers themselves use their own photographs as a visual aid. There is no doubt that this state archive represents only a particular segment of memories. The repetition of details in their narration, however, can cement the viewer in their belief that this is a record of how things really happened. Anyone who remembered at least that hackneyed old phrase from history class – “history is written by the victors” – must feel some unpleasant shivers down their spine.

Perhaps that is why in her newer works, Sohrabi rebels against this falsely transparent legibility of events, resorting to a more unfocused perspective. Syndromes (since 2019) are redrawn declassified CIA documents relating to the Tanker War, a conflict between Iran and Iraq that took place between 1984 and 1988 with the participation of superpowers including the USA and the USSR. The project thus connects Sohrabi’s research and artistic interests, including geopolitical aspects linked to the trade and circulation of oil, and elements of power in visuality related to the circulation of images and narratives connected to these images. She emphasizes the fact that what is important is not only that which is included in the image, but also – and often more importantly – that which is not in the image. Large dark fields of drawings placed in those parts of the document that contain blacked out information provoke our desire to narrate a historical event as precisely as possible – a desire that can never be entirely fulfilled.

Text: Tereza Rudolf

IMAGE CAPTIONS

1 | Sanaz Sohrabi, Sanaz Sohrabi, Declassified CIA pdf document “DOC_0000268293”, Redacted graphite replication from page 9, lower bottom. Unspecified technical information about navy ships. Digitized large format, printed on vinyl Phototex, dimension variable, 2019
2 | Declassified CIA pdf document “DOC_0000268293”, Redacted graphite replication from page 10. The page title “Attacks in the Persian Gulf, January-May, 1987, ” covers the nautical map of the Strait of Hormuz, flow of oil tankers, and military bases across land and water orders. Digitized large format, printed on vinyl Phototex, dimension variable, 2019
3 | Sanaz Sohrabi, Declassified CIA pdf document “DOC_0000268293”, detailed shot from page 11, large Redacted section by CIA as well as the the deteriorated image with the caption “Dassault Breguet Mirage F1 launching an Aerospatiale A.M39.” Digitized large format, printed on vinyl Phototex, dimension variable, 2019
4 | Sanaz Sohrabi, Declassified CIA pdf document “DOC_0000268293”, Detailed shot from page, 7 visualizing an unspecified missile being launched. Digitized large format, printed on vinyl Phototex, dimension variable, 2019

Tereza Rudolf

is an art critic and reviewer focusing on photography and contemporary art. From 2016 to 2022, she participated - in different positions - in the programme of the Fotograf Festival.

Sanaz Sohrabi

is a visual artist and film-maker born in Tehran, where she also began her studies at the College of Arts of the University of Tehran. She then studied in the USA and is currently completing her PhD – on geopolitical relations in the context of the oil trade – in Montreal, Canada. Since 2016, her works have been presented at a number of significant film festivals.

#41 Postdigital Photography

Few theorists of photography have a complex vision of the whole world of photography and the need not to confine this medium in discrete bubbles or groups of supporters. Filip Láb was one of these. He took part in debates during the preparation of issues of the magazine; he belonged to the editorial board. Filip left this world prematurely. His exceptional capacity to span photojournalism and to reflect on contemporary art was unique, and it is precisely this type of understanding and openness that helps to merge bubbles instead of reinforcing our confinement in them. We will all miss it. The intention of this issue is to develop the legacy of Filip Láb and his latest book of the same name, Postdigital Photography. Filip’s contributions consisted both in an interest in the medium of photography and the technological aspects of its further development, as well as in observing the media world and uncovering the manipulations that photography can facilitate in a way that is even dangerously brilliant. We will start on post-digital photography with the first digitally edited image in the world, John Knoll’s depiction of his girlfriend Jennifer in Tahiti. Artist Constant Dullaart dedicated an entire project to Jennifer using Photoshop filters with the ability to comment on both the recent past and ask questions about the future development of image making. Another paradigmatic example that Filip would rave with enthusiasm about is the case of photojournalist Jonas Bendiksen, whose book full of post-produced films is written about by Adam Mazur. What is postdigital photography? In this issue, it is a spectrum of approaches, contexts, and technological aspects. From DeepFace and use of artificial intelligence for automatic image retrieval, through the (un)hidden carbon footprint of data, fake news and the notion of post-truth, to manipulation through post-production, to artistic approaches from home-office desktop documents or wild post-internet aesthetics or lapidary mixing of photos into liquid mucus. A rich selection.