Rain 2006

Abbas Kiarostami made this photograph, titled 'Rain', on what must have been a very wet day. I can imagine the rain beating on the window while he waited for a break in the weather. I love how the water distorts the view outside, blurring the background into soft shapes of green and the dark mass of the tree. The raindrops themselves become the focus, each one a little lens refracting the light and creating abstract patterns. It's almost like he's painting with light and water instead of oil paint. Kiarostami was known for his experimental approach to filmmaking, so maybe this was a way for him to explore similar ideas in photography— playing with perception, blurring the line between reality and representation. It reminds me of Gerhard Richter's blurred paintings, where the act of looking becomes as important as the subject itself. It is about seeing, and how we see, not just about what.