Iranian-Canadian visual journalist and artist Parisa Azadi describes her process of creating protest photographs during the 2022 Iranian revolution from exile in Dubai. Unable to return to Iran, she used open-source protest footage from social media, isolating frames and printing them with a Fujifilm instax camera to transform ephemeral digital images into physical objects. In January 2026, after state massacres and executions, she began burning these prints as an act of mourning, scarring their surfaces to echo the violence they depict.
This work matters because it demonstrates how artists in exile can bear witness to repression through innovative, low-tech methods, turning the 'poor image'—a concept articulated by German artist Hito Steyerl—into a politically potent form of testimony. Azadi's practice highlights the intersection of documentary photography, censorship, and bodily freedom, showing how art can carry rage, grief, and refusal while responding to a movement that insists on reclaiming autonomy from state violence.