Snow White 

Curator: The monochrome landscape immediately strikes me with its starkness—a chilling depiction of isolation, wouldn't you agree? Editor: I’m drawn to that feeling, too. Let's look closely at this work entitled "Snow White" by the acclaimed Iranian filmmaker and photographer, Abbas Kiarostami. His cinematic eye translates powerfully into his still images. What do you think about the choices here in tonality, Abbas reduced visual information to stark blacks and whites; it almost feels hyperreal, emphasizing form, the medium is the message? Curator: I'm certainly receptive to that reading, considering Kiarostami's exploration of black and white in his films as well. The line of skeletal trees along the horizon feels oppressive. How much are formal elements contributing to an oppressive feeling, in stark contrast to how the fairy-tale is mostly known. The material constraints influence reception—do you read social messaging into such an empty field? Editor: Definitely! The emptiness reads like an indictment. There's something about the sparseness, the suggestion of environmental precarity but, the framing gives importance to certain element. It almost appears documentary in nature, but is anything truly authentic with constructed images. I wonder, how Abbas position landscape and Iranian culture at that time with the social constraints imposed to it. Curator: Right, a meditation on both absence and presence. This resonates within broader post-revolutionary Iranian art, and it can reflect broader concerns related to restricted spaces that affected artistic expression and agency, how do we overcome said challenge? He could've not called it "Snow White," for instance, the impact would've changed dramatically. Editor: Yes, calling it “Snow White” places it in an entirely different symbolic register, juxtaposing an unsettling commentary on both the material realities of landscape, labor, and social narrative. Food production and rural work can all play a part, even implicitly with the fairytale link; are these social values that were starting to erode with an increased urbanization? Curator: I am seeing this in a totally different light now, an artistic bridge towards storytelling for change; I appreciate the additional lenses. Editor: Me too! The intersectional insights are invaluable.