Iran, Untitled 2014

Editor: This is an untitled photograph by Gohar Dashti, created in 2014. What strikes me is the ladder inexplicably placed in the middle of this desolate landscape with people seemingly waiting on it. What do you see in this piece? Curator: I see a stark commentary on the materials and processes that shape our understanding of labor and social mobility within challenging geopolitical contexts. Look at the very composition. We have this mass-produced ladder, an object intended for upward movement and progress, juxtaposed against a barren landscape. How do we reconcile the promise of upward mobility, with its material and physical limitations and also with the implied scarcity and hardship evident in the landscape and in the solemn expressions? Editor: So, the ladder is a physical object that has implications beyond just being a ladder. How does the process of actually creating the photograph add to this idea? Curator: Photography itself, as a medium, is inherently tied to processes of documentation and representation. Dashti is deliberately staging a scene, manipulating the visual elements and labor required to position the ladder and the figures. That's an active intervention that demands that we question the social reality being presented. Are we looking at a commentary on stagnant social structures? Is there a suggestion about displacement? Editor: The people on the ladder seem like they are waiting or trapped, and that really ties into the ideas you mentioned about stagnant structures and displacement. So it makes me think, if this ladder represents material possibility, does it mean that the rungs of possibility have stopped, or maybe the materials aren't strong enough? Curator: Exactly. It’s an invitation to investigate how physical and social environments and systems limit possibilities of people or hold people in place, whether that limitation is literal or a perceived lack of resources and how material aspirations affect realities. It speaks volumes about the constructed nature of our perceived potential. Editor: That makes me see it very differently now, thanks. It’s powerful to think about how the use of specific materials and this setup speak to a deeper commentary on social and economic challenges, as well as ideas of labor.