Stacy Arezou Mehrfar – Contained
“I am a first generation Iranian Jew, born and raised in a suburb of New York City. When I returned home after 4 years at University, the differences between my parents’ traditional cultural beliefs and the American lifestyle that had surrounded me had become overwhelmingly apparent.”
“My parents hold tight to their cultural identity, and expect their children to sustain it. Trying to maintain their conventions and at the same time living in American culture, for me, resulted in a convoluted and often contradictory value system.
I never really could ground myself in either of these cultures. The need to understand my own identity and crystallize my own ideals within the two traditions brought me to photograph my domestic interiors.”
“Although I am only physically present in few of the images, I perceive each one as a self-portrait. I am interested in telling stories through images that read on many different levels, from the documentary to the metaphoric and symbolic. The importance of these images lies in detailing the contradictions between the two cultures, and in leaving the viewer to resolve them.”
via Flak Photo