Rain 2006

Editor: So, this photograph is called "Rain" by Abbas Kiarostami, taken in 2006. It looks like a landscape seen through a rain-streaked window. It feels…melancholy, I guess. What do you see in this piece? Curator: The layering here is key. We're seeing the world filtered – by the rain, by Kiarostami's lens, and by our own perspectives. What does it mean to see a landscape mediated in this way? Think about landscape painting historically - the male gaze, ideas of ownership and romanticization. Kiarostami, as an Iranian artist, enters that dialogue from a very different position. Does this strike you as an image of control or something else? Editor: Not control, definitely not. It feels much more about… vulnerability, maybe? Like we’re on the outside looking in, unable to really touch or change anything. Curator: Precisely. The rain becomes a visual metaphor for distance, perhaps even oppression. We need to consider the sociopolitical context of Iran in the 2000s, and the limitations placed on artistic expression. Does this image speak to those restrictions in any way? The obscured landscape…is it a landscape available for view without constraints? Editor: That’s a good point. I hadn’t really thought about it like that. The blurriness could be interpreted as censorship, a hiding of something. Curator: It’s also worth considering the idea of *plein air* photography. Traditionally, it’s about capturing the immediacy of a scene, the "truth" of nature. By shooting through a rain-streaked window, Kiarostami is questioning that whole premise, isn't he? What does “nature” even mean? Editor: So, it’s like he's using a seemingly simple image to ask bigger questions about power, representation, and even truth itself. I wouldn’t have gotten all of that on my own. Thanks! Curator: And I'm prompted to look at the historical relationship between art and social control in new and thoughtful ways.