Half-Light, a limited edition photo book, gives us a peek at the life of Shahrzad Darafsheh, a photographer and artist currently battling cancer in Tehran.
Those who are into collecting photobooks and publications that are deeply personal in their message and nature might want to check out a complex book to be independently published by Gnomic Book. Half-Light chronicles the life and experiences of Iranian photographer and artist Shahrzad Darafsheh, who has been battling cancer for some time now. The project has already been fully funded on Kickstarter, but there’s still time to grab a copy and show your support.
According to the folks of Gnomic Book, they came across the work of 36-year-old Darafsheh in 2017, and became intrigued by her sensitive storytelling and enigmatic subject matter. It turns out that she has been struggling with cancer for a while, and was soon to undergo surgery and a course of chemotherapy.
Half-Light is a visual chronicle of Darafsheh’s compelling journey through her illness, and is interestingly described in the campaign as a complex book that “operates on several levels”. It’s comprised of “various materials of different opacities, evoking the fragility of skin, obscuring and revealing life’s scars.” It also reads from right to left, as in Farsi, creating a distinctly different experience for most readers. “It is a bilingual project that provides a view into life in a country which many of us have no knowledge of, or visibility into.”
The campaign video intensifies the emotional quality of the book by giving us a glimpse of Darafsheh’s life in Tehran. There, she also explains how battling her illness has also meant observing how her body has changed, is changing, and will possibly change.
There will only be 300 copies of this book made available, and you can get one with a pledge of at least $32. There are eight more days to go before the campaign ends, so go ahead and pledge your support on the Kickstarter page to grab a copy.
Photos from the Kickstarter campaign by Gnomic Book