AP "Inside the shrine, I thought a thousand words...
And when I left – it had snowed"
Abbas Kiarostami 

Abbas Kiarostami's bold, thoughtful images of desolate natural landscapes represent a significant divergence from the anthropocentric, socio-political, urban aesthetic of his renowned cinema productions. In the Snow White Series, Kiarostami makes a transition from the urban to the natural, and with it replaces political discourse with philosophical contemplation.

The photographs of Snow White series were taken along Iran's Caspian coast during walks Kiarostami took in search of film locations. The images he took were spontaneous and unplanned; immediate reactions to the stimuli of his surroundings, impulses catalyzed by feelings of awe and wonderment. Kiarostami himself states that his photographs were, "never produced to be shown", yet once they were developed, the subjective significance of the instance they captured, their beauty and contemplative depth were far too profound to remain hidden.

The present image is an exemplary piece, reflecting all the crucial aspects of Kiarostami's agenda, and its philosophical significance rests both on its qualitative contrasts between man and nature, and also on Kiarostami's subjective interpretation of Iranian history. The tree, analogous to life and growth, is in symbolic conflict with the harshness and inhospitality of a snow-filled environment, but the resilience of the trees therein represents nature's ability to harness opposing elements within a seemingly harmonious whole. The immediacy of nature, its self-regulating harmony, and its blind continuation are free from the misshapen flaws of a conflict ridden, dystopic, urban environment. Furthermore, the date during which Kiarostami's images were produced are highly significant: 1978-2006 spans not only Iran's turbulent Islamic Revolution, but the consequent war with Iraq and two further decades of political repression and civil unrest. Yet Kiarostami's calm, peaceful landscapes show no sign of this bloody legacy, a testament to nature's indifference towards mankind.

An artist known best of all for his cultural scrutiny, in Snow White, Kiarostami urges us to transcend the blinkered realm of material, human concerns, and embrace the majesty and permanence of nature; a force which outlives our fragile and ephemeral lives.