For Meysam Hamrang, this picture was years in the making. The Iranian photographer took it in 2019 at a spiritual ceremony within the village of Masuleh, a part of a historic metropolis within the northern province of Gilan, Iran.
“On the sixth day of Muharram – the primary month of the Islamic calendar – Shia Muslims mourn the martyrdom of Imam Hussein in a ritual referred to as Alam Bandan,” says Hamrang. “It’s held in a 1,200-year-old shrine. Folks from surrounding villages collect to take part in, or observe, the ritual.”
The distinctive structure of Masuleh, the place most buildings are just one or two storeys excessive, and the yard above one home types the roof of the home under, permits residents, native individuals and guests to collect en masse. “It’s all the time performed with nice ardour and solemnity,” he says.
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Hamrang says one in every of his objectives with this picture was to spark curiosity. “I need to immediate my viewer to ask, ‘What’s taking place right here?’ In as we speak’s world, many conventional ceremonies danger being forgotten. Documenting such moments via pictures is my approach of contributing to preserving them.”
He provides: “I additionally love this image as a result of it wasn’t captured by probability. It got here from years of attending the ritual and ready for the proper vantage level, and the proper second.”
