Navid Sanati’s work is a quest and exploration of identity and the subconscious mind. As an artist living and creating in Iran, his images evoke a great many rich ideas that blossom from his surroundings and his dreams. Haunting and provocative in their original concepts, Navid’s breathtaking photographs investigate the surreal purpose and practice of existence.
When human beings populate his work, whether they are shrouded, faces hidden, or fragments of the body, each is reaching for a greater whole; a puzzle piece that is missing. In his ambiguity series, the outer visage of his characters are masked to the outside world and as viewers we struggle to identify them as they, internally face the same struggle with their own essence of being within the cocoon of their own minds. Using black and white photography, Navid relishes in the vast empty space of either deep black or white to encapsulate the figure and isolate him. Human eyes and faces often being the focal point of traditional portrait studies, Navid takes the path unexpected and throughout his work, it is not what is seen, but what is not seen that keeps the viewer pondering his characters. It is without these details of their appearance that we are better able to identify them with ourselves. In the landscapes or architectural shapes, stairs twist, branches reach out into the fog, hallways meet with endless hallways and cities yearn to join with the clouds above. Each person, place, each living and non-living thing perpetuates the eternal desire for a higher purpose: self-realization.
We are ecstatic to share so many of Navid’s photos with our readers in this edition of Literary Orphans and encourage everyone to become followers of his work online. To see more of his portfolio or contact his professionally, please visit his deviantART profile, his Behance portfolio, or Vimeo page.
Navid was also kind enough to answer a few questions regarding his photography and inspiration, which you can read here, in his interview with Literary Orphans.