Text by Ladan AKBARNIA
In this series, Parsa draws from a selection of images captured in diverse cultural contexts to orchestrate new ‘architectural visions’ and perspectives through dynamic visual juxtapositions. Each montage involves a pair of ‘threads’ woven together from a dialogue of aesthetics – shapes, forms, color contrasted with black and white or sepia – or social commentary. Blazing flames behind the iconic image of Jimi Hendrix are echoed by the fluid movement of the pirouetting dancers of Courbevoie; high end Paris sales are challenged by the stoop sale/street fair culture of urban New York; the celebrated Brooklyn Bridge, a symbol of New York City and a source of pride to Brooklyners in particular, gains sacred status through a pairing of its arches with those of a French church in Saintes; and a framed bird’s eye view of modern Manhattan skyscrapers speaks to a view from below of 17th-century glazed brick muqarnas architectural units of an Iranian mosque in Isfahan. These images, along with the others in this series, reflect a two-part process undertaken by the photographer: first, moments are captured in their own right in different countries, contexts, and periods; and second, those images become assembled, or curated, into montages commenting in both humorous and serious ways on the dynamic contrasts found in real life.