Life Death and Other Similar Things

Amin Yousefi born in 1996 in Abadan, Iran, is a London-based writer, researcher, and image-based artist. He holds a Master’s degree in Documentary Photography from the University of Westminster. A native of Abadan in the province of Khuzestan, Iran's most oil-rich region, and the scene of a bloody war with neighbouring Iraq, Yousefi's work examines the event of photography through the socio-political aspect of the medium. His primary concern lies in the implications of the archive, exploring violence in the Middle East enacted and how the act of photography can conceptually mirror the structures of these relationships.
Yousefi's work has been featured in several exhibitions and awards, including being named a 2024 Foam Talent Award winner. His project "Eyes Dazzle as They Search for the Truth" was selected as a finalist for the 2022 Carte Blanche Awards at Paris Photo and was later exhibited with Ag Galerie at the 2023 Unseen Art Fair in Amsterdam. His work has also been showcased at the 2024 Belfast Photo Festival, the 2024 Athens Photo Festival, and the 2024 Kranj Photo Festival. Additionally, Yousefi participated in the 2024 Circulation(s) festival at Centquatre-Paris and the 2024 Back to the Future exhibition at Peckham 24.

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Life, Death and Other Similar Things [2019-2021]

The sound of the fidoos horn is the familiar rising call of Iran's oil-producing regions, which signifies the beginning of the working day for the oil workers and the entire city.

This is southwestern Khuzestan, with its three rivers and oil refinery, after the sound of the fidoos and before the unforgiving heat of its noontime sun. Khuzestan is Iran's most ancient region and the birthplace of its nation. It is a region blessed and cursed by its wealth of oil and natural gas, pillaged in an eight-year war with neighboring Iraq and crushed under the weight of the sanctions and an ineffective government. The local population is made up of Lurs, Iranian Arabs, Qashqai people, Afshars, indigenous Persians, Iranian Armenians, and the Bakhtiari people. Khuzestan has excellent potential for agricultural expansion, which is almost unrivaled by the country's other provinces. Significant and permanent rivers flow over the entire territory, contributing to the fertility of the land. Karun, Iran's most effluent river, 850 kilometers long, flows into the Persian Gulf through this province. The agricultural potential of most of these rivers, particularly in their lower reaches, is hampered by the fact that their waters carry salt, which increases as the rivers flow away from the source mountains and hills. During the Iran–Iraq War, Khuzestan was the focus of the Iraqi invasion of Iran, leading to the flight of thousands of the province's residents. As a result, Khuzestan suffered the heaviest damage of all Iranian provinces during the war.

What used to be Iran's largest refinery at Abadan was destroyed, never to be fully recovered. Many of the famous Nakhlestans (palm groves) were annihilated, cities were destroyed, and historical sites were demolished. However, Khuzestan remains one of Iran's most hospitable regions. As the great poet Nizami said, "Her lips aflow with sweet sugar, the sweet sugar that aflows in Khuzestan."