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Earlier this week we had a talk by Amak Mahmoodian. So today I'm going to talk to you about one of her projects; Shenasnameh. Before I do, I'm going to give you a little bit of background information. Amak was born in Shiraz, Iran just after the Islamic revolution and amid the war between Iran and Iraq. The war and revolution affected the country and the families.

"It was a revolution within the families rather than the societies and the countries."

The war affected her family too as they became separated. Her conversations and meetings with the family were suddenly through family albums and family photographs.

"Photographs became the evidence of being with my loved ones who I couldn't see in person."

This early relationship with photography became the foundation of her practise. Her work explores notions of identity and home, creating a bridge between personal and political. Through her journey she explores the effects of exile and distance on memory, dreams, and daily life. Working with images, poems, and archives: she looks for the lyrical realities framed in photography.

The project Shenasnameh began in 2010 and continued until it was published in 2016 by LRB photo books. Shenasnameh is the name of the official Iranian birth certificate which is valid for life however, the photograph which it obtains must be updated according to their standards. 11 years ago, she was sitting in a waiting room next to her mum holding their Shenasnamehs and her eyes began to flick from the picture of her mom to the picture of herself. She contemplated what the pictures meant, what they showed and what they didn't show. For all their differences, Amak and her mother were welded into one being in their photographs. She looked like her mum and mum like her, but she realised it went beyond just simple genetics. She realised all Iranian women were being restricted and represented to look the same for self and for others. Although the faces were the same the fingerprints were different.

"They showed how a very small part of our being could present how different we are from each other."

The book became enormously successful as a publication as well as an exhibition. It received the following awards:

• Winner of the Photobook Flip Award 2016
• Special Mention at Maribor Photobook Award 2016
• Finalist Best British Book Design and Production 2016
• Shortlisted 2016 Best Author Book, Rencontres Arles

Due to its popularity however, the project became misread. The blind knowledge the audiences had, along with their perceptions, meant that a deeply personal project became widely political. This led to her being advised not to return home at least for a few months.

What I really found fascinating with this project was how deeply identity and photography were intertwined and how context can be added to a series of images by the viewer that ultimately alters the original meaning behind them. It's almost creative in the way a deeply personal project became this political message that so many Iranian women would have been able to relate to. I think this is something I need to take into consideration when I make my images for 'Mythos'.

Just like Amak, I'm exploring the representation of women within different cultures. Where hers is more specific to her own personal experience, mine addresses a much wider context. The way in which we relate to images is by placing our own personal experiences on them to understand what we think the messages are that they're trying to convey. I think it would be important for me to consider that no matter how I present my images, the context behind them is going to alter depending on each viewer, even when providing my own explicit context.