INTERCITY TRAIN, [TEHRAN-KARAJ], 2011

Nowadays, traveling is an essential part of our lives. Moving from one place to another for work is also part of everyday life for the human being of today. The city has been spreading almost uncontrollably across the countryside, Since the use of trains, cars and telecommunications have become commonplace. These photographs were taken on an intercity train between Tehran, capital of Iran and Karaj, the largest city close by. This route is a daily commute for people who live in either one of these two cities but work in the other. This intercity area is not between urban and non-urban, nor between the city and open landscape, but rather it is located between two metropolises, it is the occupied, restricted nature that is urbanizing fast and will definitely be a part of both of these huge cities in the future.

In the randomness of what the train window was showing, the urbanized landscape or landscaped city, the Zwischenstadt was my main concern, a very different and new form of the city which is spreading out in the world. In this kind of Zwischenstadt the function of the landscape has changed from a passive background to a dynamic foreground - this is the point I tried to emphasize in my work. The choice of a fixed camera and the movement of the train allowed me to remain bound to objective photography in its traditional meaning while at the same time distancing myself from it.