Maryam (Nilu) Ghasempour
Waiting Place, 2026
Large-format photography
Unspoken Loss, 2026
Large-format photography
Inner Lotus, 2025
Digital and large-format photography
In this ongoing series, Memory's Edge, I explore memory, presence, and absence through layered black-and-white photographs made with large and medium format film cameras. Using in-camera manipulation and double exposure, parts of each frame remain obscured by darkness, forming a visual veil that both conceals and frames the subject.
Rather than clarifying, these images resist resolution. They move between what is visible and what remains hidden, holding fragments of memory that cannot be fully spoken. Through double exposures and subtle photomontage, the work traces unstable connections between past and present, self and memory.
The series reflects migration and the emotional weight of distance, when return becomes impossible, when connections are cut off, and access to loved ones is no longer possible, where absence can feel as tangible as presence.
At its core, the work considers the quiet resilience of migrants and how memory, care, and connection persist even within fracture.
- Maryam (Nilu) Ghasempour