English Version | Portfolio: Blood Moon

20 Jul 2022
By Joana Rodrigues Stumpo

A huge red circle rises in the sky, illuminating the world with its menacing aura. With the power of a camera (and some post-production), Hossein Zare brings this sinister, yet incredibly beautiful, scene to life.

A huge red circle rises in the sky, illuminating the world with its menacing aura. With the power of a camera (and some post-production), Hossein Zare brings this sinister, yet incredibly beautiful, scene to life.

Up there, hovering over our heads, is a red light, an innocent moon transformed into a threat. For a few hours we live with this omen over us, this warning of dangers yet to come. It is called the blood moon, and for centuries it has been believed to be a harbinger of war, death and misery. These days, it is astrology that takes it upon itself to provide an explanation for this phenomenon: although it is not an indication of tragedy per se, it is something invariably associated with chaos, violence, and great changes. But we also already know that there is a scientific basis for the crimson color that floods the skies - from time to time there are certain eclipses in which the alignment of the planets causes a dispersion of light in the Earth's atmosphere, which is then reflected on the moon, covering it with a red haze. Still, fear is easily installed, and it is this ominous scenario that Hossein Zare reproduces with his lens. But for the Iranian photographer, the focus is not the apparent danger. In an interview for Vogue Portugal, he explains that combining the blue sky and the red moon "is like a contrast between having and not having hope, it's about doubt and it's our choice that makes it positive or negative." In his work, this uncertainty is very much present - while on one hand there is the imminent threat of the light emanating from the moon, the city, nature and all the actors remain serene, unaffected by the intimidation of the giant red "ball." This is how Zare contradicts everything we thought we knew about the meaning of colors: "For me, and maybe for many people, on different days they can radiate a different energy, it's not just about yellow or red." His passion for photography began with the offer of a compact camera: "I started working with my camera and filled my loneliness with it," he says, although nowadays he does not do it as a full-time activity. For Zare, "photography is a passion, a way of calming myself down and emptying what's inside." From the beginning it has been an organic learning process, on his own, as the photographer admits to being inspired by "surreal and conceptual photographs, by people creating their own worlds." In the case of his blood moon recreations, the work is more in the post-production than in the photography, although it is from there that "a new image is created." After 12 years of photographing, this red phase in his career came about "when I was by the sea, about five years ago, looking at the sunset" and, after improving on the initial idea, this is the final product.

Translated from the original on The Sunny Vibes Issue, from Vogue Portugal, published July 2022.Full stories and credits on the print issue.

Joana Rodrigues Stumpo By Joana Rodrigues Stumpo

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