Memorial photos are taken in order to overcome time but are confined to time. Their paradoxical nature is more than other photographs. Their dialectical play of presence and absence is more tangible in these photos. Due to this function, the history of these photographs dates back to the invention of photography. They go back to the early burial rites that people›s skulls were kept as mementos at home and numerous other examples that also played the same role. The most superficial aspect of memorial photos is the recording of an event, while in the deeper layers it is a reminder of a time when, with its passage, it had no signs other than destruction. Morteza Khosravi has dealt with the destructive and paradoxical role of memorial photos or mementos in the collection of «Memorial Photos”. The purpose of these photos is to preserve, but ultimately they lead to disappearance. In a sense, by blurring the photos, he has only dealt with a trace of time in them. In this collection, Khosravi deals with the distorting nature of memorial photos, which is in conflict with their original purpose. A memento is initially supposed to be free from the detriment of the past, but in the end, it is only the acceptance of the ruins of «the lost time». Memorial photos are a lived life that later would be considered an unlived and regretful life.

Amir Nasri