invited guest: Mohammad Reza Shahroki Nejad

I am honoured to present you Brick Kilns project – series made by talented and sensible photographer from Iran: Mohammad Reza Shahroki Nejad

The 3 years old Kurdish little girl is standing between her family members. In the future she will be counted as a labor force and deprived of attending school.

The young man has cut his toe with broken glass during crushing the clay underfoot. The workers have no rubber boots and work bare foot.

Hossein has put his arm on his brother's shoulder while smoking a water pipe. He works with his two wives and eight little sons at the brick works.

The one year old girl has fallen asleep while her mother is working. Women don't have much time during the day for taking care of their children.

During the day at the brickyard, the children have nothing else to do than helping their parents by molding and making the bricks

Samira, the Kurdish woman works alongside her husband. They return to their province which is 600 kilometers west of Tehran as the rainy season begins.

Workers who transport mud-bricks to the kiln, have found time for a break during the day. They move 240 kilograms brick, around 50 times with their handcarts to the kiln.

The truck driver is waiting by the kiln for his brick load. The kiln's temperature rises to 1000º C. During transferring the bricks it is still 50 º C warm.

At sunset, the young man is sitting on the bricks, made by his own family during that day. They have to wait one more day for the bricks to dry completely.

Abbas who comes from Kurdistan, is going to his room after the working day. He makes 8000 mud-bricks a day together with his wife, two daughters and three sons.

The young man is embracing his little daughter. He comes 1000 kilometers, from Birjand (a city in east of Iran) to Tehran, in order to work at the brickyard.

By the end of the working day, the woman has cleaned and watered the front of her house and is resting while smoking water pipe.

Mohammad says about himself:

I was born on 1978 in Tehran / Iran.
At the time, I'm photographing for Hamshahri Newspaper which has the largest circulation in the country.
I studied painting at the university and i think it was important for me as i learned newer aspects of my mind.
And as far as photography is concerned:
I really like black & white photography, because I think that I'm facing my subject without any intermediates.
I wish I could place the camera between people's skin and heart, to be under their skin, so close, so delicate and unexpected. I want to be able to record their real feelings.
Sometimes I have to chat or smoke a cigarette with them, during those moments lots pictures pass in front of my eyes, but I prefer to communicate with them at first before taking the photos. It is my will to get to know their reality but after all I like the viewers to face this reality directly, when they look at my photos. That means to forget its being a photo. This is all my effort in photography.

A photo being artistic is not so important for me, although I always try to fix the best framing.

And for me the whole pleasure of photography is in these two points:
1-The human.
2- The reality.

thank you Mohammad for sharing your work with us, I am personally looking forward to see results of your ongoing projects.

invited by Marcin Górski