Mojdeh Tabatabaei's Interview with Iran Art News Agency Regarding "Annual Photo Exhibition of Mojdeh Art Gallery"
Mojdeh Tabatabaei, director of Mojdeh Art Gallery, says about the annual photo exhibition that has been held three times in this gallery: “After successfully holding the first photo exhibition of Mojdeh Art Gallery, we decided to hold the annual Photo Exhibition of Mojdeh every year in the summer. In the current situation, due to the increase in the price of paper and printing, to hold a photo auction was not in favor of photographers in any way, and the photography community was harmed from an economic point of view. Because in the auction, photographers are forced to put the price of their photo lower than the gallery’s price.
She added: Our goal in holding the photo auction was to make young artists seen and inculcate the culture of buying photographic artworks in the society. We insisted on enlisting the help of a range of young artists to offer conventional prices to entice the general public to buy pictures. In this exhibition, the effort was to spread the culture of photo collecting by emphasizing on the principle of each work having an edition and the valuableness of photos, contrary to public opinion.
Tabatabaei continued: Due to the dire economic conditions, all efforts were made to ensure that artists do not have to incur additional costs to participate in this exhibition and do not have to photograph based on a common theme, therefore, we held this event without any restrictions so that photographers could use their available artworks to participate in this event.
She added: "In order to hold this exhibition, we have benefited from the cooperation of the Silk Road and AG galleries, and the managers of these galleries generously introduced their photographers to participate in this exhibition and provided us with their artworks." In this exhibition, a good thing happened for young photographers and we see their works displayed alongside the works of pioneers. It is interesting to know that some of the young photographers whose photos were displayed in this event did not even have the chance to participate in a group exhibition before.
Tabatabaei said about the sale of the works: "I think the reception of this exhibition has been good in every way, and until the end of the exhibition, we will see great things happening in the heart of this event." Our main goal in setting up this exhibition is to inculcate the culture of purchasing photos. Until the establishment of the photo auction and this annuals, the audience was more used to enjoying viewing photos at the exhibitions and less thinking about buying and purchasing them. This exhibition had a good sale for the first day and we even saw the sale of all copies of some photos.
