‘A Place in the Sun’ from The Moon Belongs to Everyone, 2015 © Stacy Mehrfar

Interview Conducted by Heming Liu

Appearing throughout the series, allegory for the ‘in-between’ state is presented through sparse portraits, staged still life images, and landscape shots. How did you utilize the sequencing in order to convey the feeling of displacement?

In “The Moon Belongs to Everyone,” sequence operates like a musical score. The arrangements of color, figure, and pattern carry tempo, breathe, overtones and rhythm throughout each section of the book. Overall the flow of images presents an alternating landscape of both time and perspective, emphasizing this feeling of being ungrounded. With full bleed spreads from beginning to end, the photobook operates like a self-contained universe reflecting upon the loss of roots and search for belonging in the wake of immigration.

Representations of migration in your portraits shun traditional notions of immigrants, such as presenting them under an oriental gaze of impoverished aesthetics, and cultural artifacts. In many cases, the composition brings attention to the ordinary, civilian quality of the individuals. What was the process in selecting models for your project, and how did you conceive the eventual shared space they occupy in the book?

I come from an immigrant family (my parents emigrated from Iran in the late 60s). When I unexpectedly moved to Australia, I became an immigrant myself. The people I photographed are immigrants too. They are friends, friends of friends, and strangers I met along the way. We were engaged in conversation while I photographed, reflecting upon personal histories and memories, deliberating on a relationship to place and heritage. They come from different parts of the world, and yet in “The Moon Belongs to Everyone,” they are caught sharing a common ground, hovering somewhere between ‘there’ and ‘here.’ Altogether the portraits represent a collective consciousness.

from The Moon Belongs to Everyone, 2014 © Stacy Mehrfar

Among the visual motifs that reference the psychological symptoms of migration, images of nature seem to suggest a cruel normality in the act of travel, where positions no longer differentiate from one another. What was your process in constructing this ‘alternating landscape’, which later retains and returns to its original ‘position’?

Often photographers speak of a relationship to place in their works. With “The Moon Belongs to Everyone,” I approached ‘place’ as a crossroads between origin and destination. To pull this off, it was important that the landscapes furnish no signifiers, no specificity of location, that they ultimately resist identification. I was interested in confusing ‘day’ for ‘night,’ ‘down’ for ‘up,’ or ‘there’ for ‘here.’ The landscapes (and still lifes) also act as referents to a collective memory. We each have a visual relationship with the moon, the sun, dirt, cobwebs, water. It does not matter what part of the planet we come from, we all know what they look, feel and smell like.

Describe your creative process in one word.

Organized chaos

If you could teach a one-hour class on anything, what would it be?

Oh boy, one hour is a tight constraint. I’ve always wanted to teach a class on collaboration. It would be interesting to see what a group of individuals could create together in one hour.

What was the last book you read or film you saw that inspired you?

The Overstory by Richard Powers is probably the most powerful fiction I’ve read in a long while.

I also frequently listen to Natalie Goldberg’s “Writing Down the Bones” on Audible. The book was originally written in the 70s. In the audio version she reads through each chapter and then responds with her current thinking. I find that her advice gives me a lot of inspiration when writing, and love listening to her classic New Yorker accent.

The Moon Belongs to Everyone’ from The Moon Belongs to Everyone, 2015 © Stacy Mehrfar

What is the most played song in your music library?

I currently have Contact High, ICP’s Spotify playlist on repeat. It is 13 hours, with 180 songs inspired by their current exhibition, “Contact High: A Visual History of Hip HIp”

How do you take your coffee?

Depends. Could be black, could be dark with a bit of sugar, sometimes it is a Flat White, other times a Cappuccino. In summer it’s iced with half and half and sweetened with raw stevia.

Check out more of Mehrfar’s work on her website and Instagram (@stacymehrfar)

Purchase “The Moon Belongs to Everyone” here