{"id":483999,"date":"2026-02-18T23:04:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T23:04:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/483999\/"},"modified":"2026-02-18T23:04:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T23:04:07","slug":"can-i-come-over-and-take-your-picture-a-decade-long-archive-captures-cross-cultural-womanhood-photography","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/483999\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Can I come over and take your picture?\u2019: a decade-long archive captures cross-cultural womanhood | Photography"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cl\u00e9mence Pol\u00e8s Farhang started Passerby magazine around the time she immigrated to New York<\/a> City. She says she wanted to explore womanhood as she navigated her own, and used publishing as a way to \u201cdeconstruct the internalized misogyny\u201d from her own education. Pol\u00e8s Farhang\u2019s mother, who left Iran during the revolution, believed women should have the right to choose what to do with their bodies, \u201cyet would dismiss any woman who didn\u2019t conform to conventional expectations\u201d, says Pol\u00e8s Farhang, such as those didn\u2019t dress \u201cin a way she considered put together, or didn\u2019t marry into heteronormative relationships within the right social class\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember being scolded in my early 20s for embarrassing her by leaving the house barefaced,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Photography gave Pol\u00e8s Farhang the autonomy to look at women differently than she had been taught to. \u201cI turned my upbringing\u2019s fixation with appearance into a sensitivity in my work. What happens when you meet it with curiosity rather than judgment?\u201d<\/p>\n

That question became Passerby<\/a> \u2013 a decade-long photographic and oral archive of more than 300 women, photographed in their homes across New York, Paris, London and Los Angeles. To celebrate the 10-year milestone, the New York gallery Slip House<\/a> is hosting Pol\u00e8s Farhang\u2019s first solo exhibition, Can I come over and take your picture?, curated by Nastasia Alberti \u2013 more than 200 photographs taken for Passerby, paired with quotes from their corresponding interviews.<\/p>\n

While preparing the exhibition, Pol\u00e8s Farhang realized that most of the portraits were of immigrants or children of immigrants. For most of them, that displacement directly shaped who they became: their work, their sense of home, their relationship to belonging.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought of Carmen Winant\u2019s The Last Safe Abortion, how she realized anti-choice activists used photography as a tool, and how she could use the same medium for abortion care,\u201d says Pol\u00e8s Farhang. \u201cWhat images are used in contemporary immigration discourse? The language is always about movement \u2013 people coming, crossing, arriving, being stopped. Immigration framed as a problem to be solved, a flow to be controlled, a crisis to be managed. How are we showing otherwise?\u201d<\/p>\n

These portraits show another facet of immigration: women building homes and making art. The captions are extracts from their Passerby interviews.<\/p>\n

Huong DodinhHuong Dodinh, Paris, 2024. Photograph: Cl\u00e9mence Pol\u00e8s Farhang<\/p>\n

Dodinh fled her home in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam, with her family at eight in 1953 due to war. They settled in Paris, in front of the Luxembourg gardens. \u201cIn Vietnam, we had no winter, so it was always lush. I remember seeing these trees in Paris bare \u2013 fallen leaves, I thought they were all dead.\u201d In France she was placed in boarding school \u2013 a severe environment, very hard for a little girl who didn\u2019t understand French. \u201cI remember the box spring beds, with a mattress on top. I couldn\u2019t sleep because, in Vietnam, we slept on hard, hard, hard beds. So, I wasn\u2019t used to sleeping on soft mattresses.\u201d She attended \u00c9cole Nationale Sup\u00e9rieure des Beaux-Arts beginning in 1965, was there for May 68<\/a>. She met her husband through a Vietnamese association that gave free lessons.. Now she lives a monastic life, rarely leaving the house except for necessities nearby.<\/p>\n

Photographed in the 20th arrondissement, Paris, 2024.<\/p>\n

RoseRose, New York City, 2023. Photograph: Cl\u00e9mence Pol\u00e8s Farhang<\/p>\n

Rose is from Guerrero, Mexico. She arrived in New York in 2000 at 22, leaving behind her children \u2013 the youngest was just a year old \u2013 to give them a better life. Upon arrival her taxi driver asked her where she was staying, and she told him \u201cIf this is New York, you can leave me here.\u201d It was 26 February, and it was snowing. The driver said he couldn\u2019t leave her on the street. He took her to his workplace at an Italian grocery store, introduced her to the manager as his sister, and got her a room for $25 a week. She started working the next day.<\/p>\n

Rose had two children starting when she was 14, both the product of rape. \u201cMy kids are the motor that keeps me going every single day. I tell myself that all of this happened to me because I was too young to take care of myself and didn\u2019t have anyone to protect me, but this will not be my children\u2019s story.\u201d<\/p>\n

She loves shopping at Marshalls and particularly loves wearing dresses and extremely high heels that she \u201ccan barely walk in\u201d.<\/p>\n

Photographed in Harlem, New York City, 2022.<\/p>\n

Shirin NeshatShirin Neshat, Brooklyn, 2022. Photograph: Cl\u00e9mence Pol\u00e8s Farhang<\/p>\n

\u201cI grew up like many Iranian people in my generation, fantasizing about America through Hollywood,\u201d says Neshat. \u201cBut when I arrived in Los Angeles, I felt a lot of depression. We were always in the car and on the highways and in these ugly apartments. I terribly missed my home.\u201d<\/p>\n

She found herself alone at UC Berkeley during the Iranian revolution around 1979. \u201cI really lost contact with my family. Then Iran started a war with Iraq and there was major antagonism against Iranian students on the campus.\u201d<\/p>\n

After meeting her partner, Shoja, she gathered Iranian artists around her \u2013 cinematographers, singers, writers, film-makers \u2013 and they became an extended family. \u201cWhatever Iranian that stayed in me is very deep. I never realized how much your childhood stamps you for ever.\u201d<\/p>\n

Photographed in Brooklyn, New York City, 2022.<\/p>\n

Ana Kra\u0161Ana Kras\u030c, Paris, 2023. Photograph: Cl\u00e9mence Pol\u00e8s Farhang<\/p>\n

Kra\u0161 was born in Belgrade. The Bosnian war began when she was seven. \u201cThe borders were closed and embargos ushered in some of the worst inflation in the history of the world, followed by bombing. Looking back, I see that it wasn\u2019t the most average childhood, but growing up in difficult circumstances is a kind of blessing. I don\u2019t think having abundance is a good environment for development.\u201d<\/p>\n

At 15, she convinced her parents to let her go to Tokyo to work as a model. \u201cIt was way before mobile phones were prolific, so it\u2019s crazy that they let me go. I had to take a minivan to Budapest to fly out of Hungary, as the airports in my country were shut down because of the war. In my head, this trip marks the end of my childhood. I made money for my family, which was very needed, as my sister had a baby just after the bombing, and we had so little at that time. I loved the feeling of being a grownup, a provider.\u201d<\/p>\n

She moved to the United States in her late 20s. \u201cI had to do so much work that I didn\u2019t like or care about, and I made so many compromises.\u201d Now she loves to spend six or seven hours a day alone at home, not interacting with anyone. \u201cI think, looking from the outside, people might assume that I am much more social.\u201d<\/p>\n

Photographed in the 11th arrondissement, Paris, 2023.<\/p>\n

Isabel SandovalIsabel Sandoval, New York City, 2020. Photograph: Cl\u00e9mence Pol\u00e8s Farhang<\/p>\n

Film-maker Sandoval was born and raised in Cebu, one of the largest cities in the Philippines. She moved to New York a year after graduating college. \u201cI didn\u2019t realize I was trans until some time after moving to New York..\u201d<\/p>\n

She says still finds identity politics can be \u201ca double-edged sword\u201d. On one hand, she says, \u201cit\u2019s great to have your stories represented but it can also inadvertently marginalize you. The industry can keep you in that box. I\u2019m making a conscious effort to transcend that label and approach new projects with the perspective of pure artistry, not just gender.\u201d<\/p>\n

Photographed in Crown Heights, New York City, 2020.<\/p>\n

Na\u00eflat Salama Djae and Salimata Ali ChahidiNai\u0308lat Salama Djae and Salimata Ali Chahidi, L\u2019Hay\u0308-les-Roses, 2025. Photograph: Cl\u00e9mence Pol\u00e8s Farhang<\/p>\n

Mother and daughter Chahidi and Djae immigrated from the Comoro Islands, where Chahidi grew up and where Djae was born, they have created a comfortable life for themselves in Paris, where Salimata is a social worker helping refugees and Na\u00eflat is a PR manager.<\/p>\n

Chahidi helps asylum seekers prepare their files. \u201cThe most emotional part is preparing the asylum file because it\u2019s their whole life. You learn what made them leave their country to come here.\u201d She helps them translate their life into a narrative that answers three questions: \u201cWhy am I coming here? What do I want here and how? Why did I leave my country?\u201d<\/p>\n

They\u2019re different in how they express emotion. \u201cWhen I\u2019m angry, I\u2019ll say it straight away. When I\u2019m very happy, I\u2019ll say it straight away. I\u2019m very into talking and she thinks that\u2019s very gen Z. Mom will keep quiet and wait until the time is right to say something,\u201d says Djae.<\/p>\n

Photographed in L\u2019Ha\u00ff-les-Roses, outside Paris, 2025.<\/p>\n

Tiana RainfordTiana Rainford, New York City, 2024. Photograph: Cl\u00e9mence Pol\u00e8s Farhang<\/p>\n

Rainford grew up in East New York, raised by a Jamaican immigrant mother who is a trained chef. She still lives in the neighborhood \u2013 now working at a community farm, growing organic produce and helping feed and educate her neighbors.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy mom was really conscious of what we ate. She really emphasized the importance of eating at home, making our own meals and eating fresh foods. Her father was a farmer too. So food has been really important to us forever.\u201d<\/p>\n

When her mother had health scares, her medical advisers didn\u2019t understand her diet. \u201cMy mom eats food that is culturally relevant to her and they made her afraid to eat the things she normally eats. Like, it may not be a norm for you to eat yam every morning or every day, but that has been a part of her diet and her culture for a long time. It didn\u2019t feel right for someone to tell her she couldn\u2019t eat that any more.\u201d<\/p>\n

Photographed in East New York, 2024.<\/p>\n

Sunny Shokrae<\/p>\n

Sunny Shokrae, New York City, 2023. Photograph: Cl\u00e9mence Pol\u00e8s Farhang<\/p>\n

Shokrae is a photographer who left Iran as a young child and was raised in southern California. Unfulfilled with post-college life, she moved to New York to pursue photography. In 2010, she went back to Tehran to do a story on the underground music scene. At a flea market, she watched a stranger check out a Black Sabbath record and walked up to him because they had something in common. \u201cI think because I left Iran at such a young age, I\u2019m always looking for things to connect me back to this place I know so much about and have so much admiration for but have spent such little amount of time in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Photographed in Bed-Stuy, New York City, 2023.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cl\u00e9mence Pol\u00e8s Farhang started Passerby magazine around the time she immigrated to New York City. She says she…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":484000,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[76,354,355,49,48,356,75],"class_list":["post-483999","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-design","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483999","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=483999"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483999\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/484000"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=483999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=483999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=483999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}