Harmony Week Author talk – Ali Mc, Analog Iran

Harmony Week Author talk

Ali Mc. Analog Iran

Mirboo North Library

6pm – 7pm

Analog Iran

In 2019, photographer Ali MC spent four weeks documenting the diversity of Iran through black and white 35mm film.

Using a fixed-lens manual camera, Ali captured the mood of the city’s streets, a dichotomy of gracious hospitality and bleak desperation of a people living under severe economic sanctions and the constant threat of war.

From the central desert and Kurdistan, the border of Afghanistan to the hustling metropolis of Tabriz and Tehran, Ali’s photographs provide a kaleidoscope of sometimes surreal, but more often real, insight into the streets of one of the world’s most misunderstood nations.

Ali’s travels also coincided with the arrest of two Australian tourists and the sentencing of an Australian academic to 10 years in prison, throwing his safety as a documentary photographer into jeopardy.

A selection of photographs from this trip have now been published as a paperback zine titled Analog Iran with a translation into Farsi, with assistance from Iranian curator and Mosem Platform founder Yasaman Tamizkar.

About Ali MC

A former touring musician and producer, Ali MC is a photographer, writer and lecturer in law and criminology. He is also a regular contributor to Al Jazeera.

Ali regularly travels internationally to conduct projects based on politics, social issues and culture, and has also worked extensively with Indigenous communities in Australia.

Recent projects include Rohingya refugees, Khasi stone labourers in India, marginalised groups in East Timor and street photography in Iran.

His portrait of Indigenous singer/ songwriter Archie Roach was selected in the 2021 national Bowness photography prize and a collection of his protest photography was recently acquired by the State Library of Victoria.

Ali is also the author of the full length travel book The Eyeball End and is currently working on a second book as well as the photo zine Analog Iran.

Working predominantly in analogue film, Ali’s work is grounded in research and academic study, holding a Bachelor of Arts with Honours in History and a Masters in Human Rights Law.

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