Statement:

Parallel Circuit announces “And They Laughed at Me” an exhibition of photographs by Newsha Tavakolian, starting Friday, June 14, and continuing through July 12, 2024. ///

In "And They Laughed At Me", Tavakolian incorporates an approach that diverges from her usual technical perfectionism.

The artist revisits the past to unveil the flaws of her artistic trajectory: the mistakes attributed to photo lab technicians, the camera, and herself, or the mishaps occurring with the subject, such as blinking.

The photographs in this show are selected from a diverse range of the artist's previous works, mostly as a photojournalist. The show’s works are divided in two, one part contains negatives selected from the artist’s teenage years from 16 to 19 (the years 1997 – 2000) and another with a gap of photographs she took after 2017.

The imperfections in some photographs are explicit, like the overexposed shots that have morphed into abstract splashes of colors.

But certain photographs in this exhibition undergo intentional defacement by the artist, as exemplified by a portrait of a young woman initially torn and then patched with paper tape. As she reaches a flower to her nose, the woman gazes into the distance from under a piece of tape. 

Newsha Tavakolian (b. 1981, Iran) is an acclaimed self-taught Iranian photographer. Starting her career at just 16 years old. Two years later at 18, she became the youngest photojournalist in Iran. Recognized for her exceptional talent, Tavakolian became a Magnum nominee in 2015 and an associate in 2019.