Image of Gallery in South Kensington
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Rivière sans lit

Photograph
2002 (photographed)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

Rahimi wanted to capture Kabul on film but was not satisfied with the images he obtained with modern cameras. He felt they could not express his emotions and perceptions of the town sufficiently. During his search for a suitable medium he discovered the pin-hole camera. A simple tool, this type of camera is merely a wooden box with a hole. Most of the technical operations are left to chance - from estimating the correct distance for focusing to the exposure time. Pinhole cameras are still used today in Afghanistan by the akâsse fawri- zarouri, literally translated as the 'instant-urgent photographer', to capture portraits in the streets in front of a cloth backdrop. Atiq Rahimi used the pinhole camera to take pictures of people in everyday life situations and places around Kabul. As a result of the nature of experimentation and chance, these photographic prints are unique pieces that cannot be replicated. Grainy and dream-like, the process makes them appear to have been made in the late 19th or early 20th century; yet on closer inspection modern details, such as architecture of clothing, gives clues as to their modernity.


Object details

Category
Object type
Titles
  • Rivière sans lit (assigned by artist)
  • Le retour imaginaire (series title)
  • River without a bed (assigned by artist)
Materials and techniques
Gelatin silver print
Brief description
Photograph, 'Rivière sans lit [River without a bed]', from the series 'Le retour imaginaire', gelatin silver print, by Atiq Rahimi, Afghanistan, 2002
Physical description
Black and white photograph of a washing line strung across a desolate landscape with a purpose built block in the background.
Dimensions
  • Image height: 6.7cm
  • Image width: 11.6cm
  • Mount size height: 24.3cm
  • Mount size width: 29.3cm
Production typeUnique
Gallery label
Rahimi returned to Afghanistan in 2002, after the fall of the Taliban. Confronted by the ruins of Kabul, he decided not to photograph the city with his digital camera. Instead he chose a primitive box camera normally used to take identity portraits in the streets of Kabul. The unpredictable process resulted in dreamlike photographs. They convey the nostalgia and brutal feelings of loss that Rahimi experienced when revisiting the war-wounded city. (Marta Weiss)(September 2012)
Credit line
Art Fund Collection of Middle Eastern Photography at the V&A and the British Museum
Place depicted
Summary
Rahimi wanted to capture Kabul on film but was not satisfied with the images he obtained with modern cameras. He felt they could not express his emotions and perceptions of the town sufficiently. During his search for a suitable medium he discovered the pin-hole camera. A simple tool, this type of camera is merely a wooden box with a hole. Most of the technical operations are left to chance - from estimating the correct distance for focusing to the exposure time. Pinhole cameras are still used today in Afghanistan by the akâsse fawri- zarouri, literally translated as the 'instant-urgent photographer', to capture portraits in the streets in front of a cloth backdrop. Atiq Rahimi used the pinhole camera to take pictures of people in everyday life situations and places around Kabul. As a result of the nature of experimentation and chance, these photographic prints are unique pieces that cannot be replicated. Grainy and dream-like, the process makes them appear to have been made in the late 19th or early 20th century; yet on closer inspection modern details, such as architecture of clothing, gives clues as to their modernity.
Associated objects
Bibliographic reference
Light from the Middle East: New Photography
Collection
Accession number
E.966-2010

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Record createdFebruary 1, 2011
Record URL
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