"After endless days and nights on the sea, the smell of earth and tree filling the air told us that the shore was close by."

The Smell of Earth and Tree

Ancient maritime trade is over in the Persian Gulf. Old sailors still remember their long voyages from Iran to West Indian Coast when tailwind drove their dhows and stars navigated them. Nowadays stories of those prosperous ages are passed down from one to another. People talk about risky journeys, fellow travelers, and free ports and bazaars, but not that much about family life in those days.

Back then, the trade was not only an economic activity. Also, the cultural and social exchanges strongly affected the very lifestyle in this region. Great journeys and long layovers in harbors led to mixed-marriages and Indian-Iranian families forged accordingly.

Unfortunately, many of these half-breed families came to a bitter end as time passed. With maritime trade fading away, they faced serious challenges. Separation, broken families, lost connections, and displacement were the consequences.

I started this project by looking for traces from the past; photos, valuable belongings, or still alive traditions. But it was old days’ memories that inspired me the most. Listening to stories of sailors and their families, I pick fragments of their blurry recollection and put down in a new account.

These pictures aren't a conventional record of a situation. They intended to remain faithful to memory's essential attribute; obscurity and fantasy. My Photos are glimpses of people, places, and objects which belong to this ground, like flashes of moments telling a familiar tale.