Wind is a photographic series captured during a visit to White Sands, New Mexico, a location that falls on the same latitude as my country of origin, Iran. Geographically, it was of great importance to me to find a familiar eastern landscape, a landscape I find myself longing for everyday. I considered my journey a religious pilgrimage to find a familiar place of similar environment and soil. White Sands resides within the landscape of the American West which has always had a gendered meaning, often described as the “virgin land,” untouched and pure. In this series, I juxtapose the western landscape with the female body, using costuming resembling that of the Egyptian goddess Iset who was worshipped as the ideal mother and wife.

This series is comprised of performative self-portraits captured in a surrealist language. Wind is an exploration of eastern and western mythology, the mystic female body, and my search through the western world to discover a landscape similar to my homeland of Iran.