User:Ari Va

Concept

The image used in this project is a collage published by Amnesty International showing some of the victims of Iran’s 1988 prison massacres. Thousands of political prisoners were forcibly disappeared and extrajudicially executed. Their bodies were not returned to their families, and information about their fate and burial places has continued to be concealed.

I was interested in the connection between this political erasure and the physical degradation of an image. The experiment asks a simple question: how much can an image be weakened before it disappears completely? As the paper and print begin to change, the faces remain visible.

Process

I printed the collage in black and white on regular office paper and exposed it to water collected from the Ilm River, together with a small amount of natural sediment.

I started with a shallow container in which the print was kept continuously wet. I documented the sample through photographs over one week. As a second, spontaneous experiment, I placed another print around the inside of a glass jar, filled it with the same river water and kept the image fully submerged.

Shallow Sample — One Week

The first slide compares the complete sample on Day 1 and Day 7. The second slide shows a detail from the same area over the same period.

After one week, the contrast had become softer, some parts of the image had blurred or changed unevenly, and sediment had settled on the paper. The surface of the paper had also visibly changed, while the faces remained recognizable.

Shallow Sample

Shallow Sample - Closer look

Closed Jar Test

The jar test began as a parallel experiment to see how the same image would change when kept completely underwater in a closed container.

The print was placed against the inside wall of the jar and remained fully submerged in Ilm River water. The following videos document the condition of the image, water and sediment after one week. So far, the visible changes seem to come mainly from the action of the water and the degradation of the paper. There is little clearly visible biological activity at this stage.

Closed-jar immersion test

Closed-jar immersion test - Closer look

Ongoing Documentation

Both samples are still being observed. I will continue documenting their changes through photographs and video and add further material to this page.

Thirty-Day Update

The first samples were kept under the same conditions and documented again after 30 days. The following comparisons show the transformation of the complete image and a detail from the same area on Day 1, Day 7 and Day 30.

Shallow Sample

The first slide shows the complete sample over the three stages. The second slide focuses on the same detail in order to make the smaller changes more visible.

Most of the visible transformation happened during the first week. By Day 30, the image had become slightly lighter and more uneven, with further loss of contrast and changes to the surface of the paper. The later changes were slower and less dramatic, but the faces remained clearly recognizable.

Closed Jar Sample

The glass jar experiment was continued without changing the original setup. The print remained fully submerged in the same Ilm river water, and the jar stayed closed.

The following video documents the sample after 30 days. The transformation remained gradual. The image was still visible through the water and glass, while sediment and prolonged contact with the water continued to affect the paper. As in the earlier stage, there was little clearly visible biological activity; the changes appeared to result mainly from immersion and material degradation.

Image source: Amnesty International, Blood-Soaked Secrets: Why Iran’s 1988 Prison Massacres Are Ongoing Crimes Against Humanity. Cover collage of some of the victims of the 1988 prison massacres in Iran. © Amnesty International.