An Iranian-born, Amsterdam-based photographer, is a gifted storyteller. In Retreat to Nowhere, a rich, smoky series of cinematic photographs set to elegiac music, Rezvani combines his talents as composer, photographer, and filmmaker to bring us the story of Linda, a woman who lost everything because of war. Rezvani, who worked as a graphic designer in Teheran and a photographer in The Hague, is no stranger to war. Here, through the story of Linda, Rezvani invites the viewer to travel through her life and remember that the losses of war far outdate the fighting. He gives Linda a voice because, as he says at the end of the interview, “People need to talk, don’t they?” EYEMAZING catches up with Rezvani about his project.

Clayton Maxwell: To view Retreat to Nowhere, I listened to the music on your website and scrolled through the images several times. The story of Linda become increasingly moving the longer I delved into it. I love how the images tell Linda’s full life story, and really connect with how the suffering and loneliness towards the end of her life are so intimately tied to the losses she suffered as a young girl. Why do you think it’s important to tell her full life story?

Rahi Rezvani: I’m against war. During Linda’s life she experiencedwar twice, plus she lost her lover during the Dutch/Indonesian war that happened between the two world wars. Many years later she lost her child, because of her life during these wars. Her life story is about surviving. How much sadness can a person handle in their life?

CM: Did you make this series as a way to awaken compassion and respect for people you might otherwise write-off or disregard?

RR: Yes, I believe that our generation often has no idea of the freedom we live in. When you look at the miserable people we sometimes meet in the street and you see their defencelessness, I feel this tragedy should be told to learn from and to treat these people with more respect.

CM: This series made me consider more fully the lasting heartache of war and how families continue to suffer long after the fighting is over. My grandmother lost her husband in WWII: she said that when she visited the WWII cemetery at Normandy, instead of thinking about all the dead soldiers, she thought about all of the widows left to fend for themselves.
How did you become interested in a story like Linda’s? Have you or anyone you know had a more difficult path because of war?

RR: When I was a child I saw war through my own eyes, between Iran and Iraq for eight years. There are so many people like Linda with the same destiny in life. Linda’s story is not just a story. It is still going on and for her it is impossible to step out of her misery.

CM: Could you please explain to me the multi-media concept behind Retreat to Nowhere? You say it is the first time that a film is in a book and an exhibition, could you elaborate? Could you please tell me how the project would be experienced in an exhibition space?

RR: In the exhibition, the book is viewed in a completely dark surrounding with a spotlight on the book. The space is filled with the soundtrack. There is nothing that takes your attention away from the photos. It becomes a film in a book.
The flashback technique that is used in film is now used for photography. The soundtracks I composed over the images give people the feeling that they are watching a movie. A lot of people asked me during the exhibitions whether the images were collected and put together as a book. All of the images were created. Costumes, styling, make-up, models, etc. were chosen for each photo.
During the exhibition, people – especially older people – reacted sometimes very emotionally. Others went through the big books, over and over again, or came back to show it to others.

CM: Please tell me more about the music and the relationship it has with your images. Do you create them together or are they independent?

RR: I created them both together. When an image was finished, I put it by beamer [projector] on the wall for a few days and composed the music. Sometimes I used sound effects from the situation in the picture. (For example, in the shot where Linda is dancing on the table, I used background sounds from people enjoying themselves in a bar.)
CM: The photo of Linda as an orphaned girl, huddling in her bed alone is heartbreaking and very beautiful. It shows such pathos for the fragility of an innocent child. Is photographing children very different from photographing adults?

RR: This is an interesting question. Let me first explain the meaning of the two pages.
Linda told me that the nuns punished her when she could or did not read the bible. Children had to sleep on the floor of the kitchen as a punishment. In this image, you see her lying on the floor with the bible open and curtains that are blown by the wind. Meaning the window is open and you can see the moon. The moon stands for loneliness.

There is no specific difference in photographing grown-ups or children. I spent a lot of time talking to the girl in the photographs and explaining Linda’s destiny. She understood well. She got my feeling and she responded this way. The moon is not a picture – it is painted.

CM: Your images have such a smoky and film noir quality. Why are you drawn to that aesthetic?

RR: These images are a flashback and I believe that “unsharp and noisy” images are closer to the images in your memory. It also gives a cinematic feel to the images.

CM: For me, one of the hardest parts about the story is the fact that the son abandons Linda. Her other relationships – with her parents and with her lover – dissolved because of war and death. But this is some one who chose to leave her. Why isn’t her son more compassionate about her past?

RR: The only answer I got from Linda is that she was confronted with Linda’s past and people called her a prostitute. He could not handle that. I don’t know exactly what happened between them.

CM: The image of Linda’s lover getting shot in the war is powerful. It reminds me a bit of Robert Capa’s famous image, The Fallen Soldier, from the Spanish Civil War. This action image must have been a challenge to stage. Could you tell me more about how you created it? Where was it shot?

RR: The story was that Linda’s lover was shot first in his knee so he could not run away and the second shot was in his neck. For me, it was more interesting to get the right feeling of the moment when he is asking the Indonesian soldier, “Please, don’t.” His raised hand shows this. We spent hours and hours on how to get the expression right in his eyes, mouth, feet and hand. The helmet had to be perfectly right after he is shot in the neck. The image was shot in a place in my neighbourhood. I used an Indonesian model; Linda’s lover is a friend I play football with.

The point of this book is that it is a mixture of techniques. Some of the shots are paintings, some are shot in a reportage way, some are made with a documentary approach. In the end it is all about telling Linda’s story.

CM: Tell me about the photo of the open armoire in the empty room. What part does it play in telling this story?

RR: For a lot of people it is a normal picture. Each person has his own armoire inside. Often it is old or broke. The door is open, because Linda’s story is ongoing. In her bedroom there is the picture of mother and son on the wall, meaning they are still living there together. The doll, from her childhood, lies on top of the armoire. In the picture where Linda’s son attacks her, you can see the armoire is open and Linda’s hand is reaching inside the armoire. This refers to her life story.
There is an old Persian saying that some people have an armoire inside of them and that they save everything in this armoire. Some people die without opening their armoire, some people are brave enough to open it.

CM: The final photograph of a large bottom on a bar stool with a walking cane near by is very poignant and one of my favourite in the series. It says so much about aging and the anonymity or invisibility many older people must experience. Why did you choose this as the final image?

RR: It is the end of the story up till now, meaning today. It is the only photo with a documentary character. Linda had one place to go to, she worked there for free and it helped her to solve part of her loneliness. But the bar closed, and Linda is now without a job and is more miserable and lonely then ever.

CM: How long have you been working on this project? Given the tragic subject matter, was it an emotionally difficult project for you?

RR: Technically I worked on Retreat to Nowhere for six months. It was not difficult to understand Linda’s story, but to translate her story into images has taken a long time and a lot of energy. But the project was really the result of ten years working and studying as a graphic designer in Teheran and as a photographer in The Hague.

CM: Can you tell me about your background as a photographer? How did you get into it? Who and what inspires you to take photos?

RR: When I was 15 I was an assistant of a set designer in Iranian cinema. One day the photographer, who was supposed to make cinematic photos, did not show up. They asked me to make the pictures. It was my very first photo shoot. I had success and suddenly had a job as a photographer. I do love painting and graphic design. Both are very connected for me and that is why I studied both of them in the East. Than I came to the West and found it interesting to understand the culture of the West through art. Photography became the next study. Photography is my sickness. I talk through my images. People need to talk, don’t they?

Text by Clayton Maxwell