The road #1 2010

This is a black and white photograph called "The Road #1" by Abbas Kiarostami. Here's what gets me—this road, this narrow path carved between what looks like gigantic walls of rock. It's not just a road; it’s a journey into something, right? I'm picturing Kiarostami out there, camera in hand, probably waiting for the light to be just so. The way the clouds hang low and heavy, it’s almost like they’re part of the road, too. I bet he was thinking about how we’re all on our own roads, some clearer than others, and how sometimes the landscape around us feels like it’s closing in. What is at the end of that road? It feels almost allegorical, like he’s using this simple scene to talk about something much bigger. He's in conversation with landscape photographers like Ansel Adams, but also the Italian neo-realist filmmakers who are finding poetry in the everyday. Art is an ongoing conversation. I love the ambiguity and uncertainty and how it keeps us looking and thinking.