ABSTRACT
This photograph is part of a series called Another Country. The main focus in the image is on the Sunni and Shia Muslim communities in London. It represents a group of girls from the Shia mosque that stands in the background. Tabrizian says people look at this photograph and think it is a Middle Eastern setting (Sarah Phillips, 2012). The dress code of the girls may suggest this. The careful choreographing of the image creates a sense of hybrid social identity in a globalized context. It invites a narrative reading in a way that blurs boundaries between fact and ction. The dilapidated building is reminiscent of the unloved architecture in Edward Hopper’s realist paintings of American city life in the 1930s. Photography in this example is related to wider concerns beyond the image and forms a part of a wider investigation of cultural and political
dislocation. Undemonstrative body language contrasts with our expectation of children at play. Tabrizian notes her concern for a ‘culture within’ the minds of these girls. It is type of photography with strong social and aesthetic content. The image attempts to nd something in the scene that suggests an imaginary world beyond it. In this chapter we discuss the term realism. Tabrizian’s work is relevant to this discussion because it is investigatory and belongs to a wider eld of social enquiry. Her work is included in this discussion because it represents a sharp contrast with the simulationist and constructed work of postmodern photographers discussed in previous chapters.
