YEREVAN — On September 23, at 2 p.m., the opening ceremony of the exhibition Interconnected: Father and Daughter Faridanis took place at the Tekeyan Center. The speakers included the exhibition’s curator, Anahit Koryun; Director of the Cultural Center of the Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Armenia Mohammad Asadi Movahed; and Nicole Faridani’s daughter, Catrine Faridani.
Nicole Faridani (1936–2008), of Armenian origin, is recognized as one of the key figures of modern Iranian photography, whose reputation began to grow in the second half of the 20th century. As a photographer, he worked across several fields simultaneously. For nearly two decades, during his tenure at the Iran-Italy Oil Company and the Iranian Oil Consortium, he specialized in geological photography, photomicrography, and aerial photography, spending more than three hundred hours in flight and pioneering these genres in Iran. At the same time, Faridani traveled extensively throughout the country, earning the title ‘photographer of the desert.’
Over fifty years of travel across Iran’s provinces, he created more than 60,000 negatives, of which 8,000–9,000 document the life and settlements of the Armenian community in Iran, many of which have since disappeared.
The central focus of Faridani’s artistic work was Iran itself: its landscapes, history, cultural monuments, and its people, with their ancient traditions and customs. The current exhibition presents a selection of his celebrated black-and-white photographs on these themes, most of them created during the early stage of his career, between 1955 and 1975.
Catrine Faridani lives and works in Canada. With dual professional training, she addresses social issues through her artistic practice. Specializing in documentary photography, she presented her project Interconnected, which explores how drinking water in Toronto reaches consumers and subsequently returns to its source.
The event was organized by the Tekeyan Cultural Association of Armenia. The exhibition will remain open until September 28.
