{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O1240078"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1240078/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2019LH7050/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2019LH7050/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"low","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2019LH7050","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":null},"record":{"systemNumber":"O1240078","accessionNumber":"E.461-2011","objectType":"Photograph","titles":[{"title":"Untitled","type":"assigned by artist"}],"summaryDescription":"The Iranian artist Abbas Kiarostami (born Tehran, 1940) is renowned for his award-winning films. However, alongside filmmaking, he has sustained a remarkable practice of still photography for over twenty-five years. Kiarostami graduated in Fine Arts from Tehran University to take up painting, graphics and book illustration before directing his first short film in 1970. In his films, he often uses a fixed position in which the camera does not move, allowing events to unfold in front of the lens, and the viewer is engaged through the untold or unexplained. In this way, his parallel practice of still photography is linked to his cinematic work and shares some of its aesthetic and intellectual concerns.\r\nThe Trees in Snow series is borne out of Kiarostami's long, solitary walks to search for film locations, sometimes covering thousands of miles in the Iranian landscape. Photographing this terrain allowed him a spontaneous immersion in nature. The selection reveals the concentrated vision of the artist exploring the repeated motif of trees in snow. Shadows and snowdrifts contribute to the breakdown of a sense of scale and perspective. An atmosphere of solitude and meditation is evoked. The images become the equivalent of emotional states and the trees almost human, echoing the saying of the Islamic mystic Muhyiddin Ibn 'Arabi (born 1165 - died 1240): 'the tree is the sister of man'.\r\nKiarostami's photographs achieve their impact without the use of intricate lighting techniques or sophisticated equipment. He is not concerned with studied methods of technique or printing. Though his negatives for this series were taken during the period from 1978-2003 they are deliberately not dated more precisely within this range by the artist.\r\n","physicalDescription":"A black and white photograph of a line of trees in the snow","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Abbas Kiarostami","id":"AUTH326939"},"association":{"text":"photographer","id":"x43821"},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"photographic paper","id":"AAT14190"}],"techniques":[{"text":"gelatin silver process","id":"AAT139114"},{"text":"photography","id":"AAT54225"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"photography","categories":[{"text":"Photographs","id":"THES48910"},{"text":"Environment","id":"THES252687"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"PDP","id":"THES48595"},"images":["2019LH7050"],"imageResolution":"low","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"LVLF","id":"THES49656"},"free":"","case":"DR","shelf":"23","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"photograph","id":"AAT46300"}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Iran","id":"x30220"},"association":{"text":"photographed","id":"x30151"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"1978-2003","earliest":"1978-01-01","latest":"2003-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"Given by Abbas Kiarostami with the assistance of the Iran Heritage Foundation","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"246","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"paper mount","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"202","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"paper mount","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"This photograph was shown in the V&A Photography Gallery exhibition Abbas Kiarostami: Trees in Snow  (14 April - 19 June, 2005) which was the first ever display of Kiarostami's photographs in the UK. It formed part of a V&A film programme and installation in gallery 50 as well as a London-wide Kiarostami festival. ","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Photograph by Abbas Kiarostami, 'Untitled', form the series 'Trees in Snow', 1978-2003, printed 2005, gelatin silver print","bibliographicReferences":[],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["E.461-2011"],"accessionNumberNum":"461","accessionNumberPrefix":"E","accessionYear":2011,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2025-12-05","recordCreationDate":"2011-08-05","availableToBook":false}}