Mohammadreza Mirzaei’s “If he didn’t say he loved you” explores the conflict between truth and the photographic representation. In this video, Mirzaei has used photographs primarily taken by others (downloaded from social media) and has accompanied them with a story – seemingly the story of the boy who is the protagonist of the photos.

Seeing a photograph, we can comment on the discernible details, such as the nature in the background, the model of a car, or a clothing style. However there is also information that eludes the camera. Photographs are supposed to be a document, but they are deceptive. By emphasizing this quality through recontextualizing photographs taken by other people, photographs become cinematic material for Mirzaei to make his story more believable.

Mohammadreza Mirzaei is an artist based in Tehran. Mirzaei works primarily with photography and writing. His work has been exhibited extensively in numerous solo and group exhibitions in Iran and abroad. Two books have been published of his work, “What I don’t have” (Edizioni del bradipo, 2013) and “Here Comes the Sun” (University of Pennsylvania Common Press, 2014). Mirzaei received an MFA degree in Fine Arts from University of Pennsylvania. He teaches photography at Professional Photography Institute in Tehran.