ENTRY DESCRIPTION
I captured this moment in the middle of the Mahsa Amini Protest in front of City Hall in Downtown Los Angeles.

I don't usually cover protests, but this was important to me as I wanted to help support my family's struggles back home in some form, unfortunately I found myself constantly harassed, attacked, and spit on by some of the protestors there. They thought I was an undercover agent for the Islamic Republic and kept barring me from taking photos of anyone.

There were only a couple of photos I was able to get with my Nikon F3, but this one of a man trying to take a selfie in front of the first lady Jill Biden and Yasmine Pahlavi felt indicative of how self absorbed we had become as a country where showing off who we were standing next to was more important than remembering the struggles of the people in Iran who live harsh lives that we take for granted here in the US.

AUTHOR
Ghawam Kouchaki is a filmmaker and photographer based out of Los Angeles.

From a young age, he’s always been fascinated with telling stories through multiple mediums, starting from short stories about his dreams, filmmaking, or documenting life through his parent’s Minolta X-700.

After completing his first short film in high school, his passion for cinema grew and sent him down a path to follow in the footsteps of filmmakers he’s admired like Edward Yang, Krzysztof Kieślowski, Michael Mann, and Toshiaki Toyoda.

He is currently developing his first photo book based on his trips to Iran titled “The Last Summer”.

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