Nebraska, Tampa, a Solo Show

21 November - 5 December 2025

Artist: Vahid Valikhani

Statement

"Nebraska, Tampa" is the fourth book in the Exercise Project from Tavaali Publication. This collection, focused on the practice of photography, attempts to produce a collection by taking inspiration from one or more renowned photographers. The resulting body of work, regardless of its internal independence and coherence, is intended to have allusions to the media and institutional dynamics of photography. The inspiration for the current collection is William Eggleston; an inspiration that, given the objective nature of photography, does not seem possible to practice anywhere other than America. As Zanyar Boloury points out in the text accompanying the collection: "The color in Eggleston's works is America itself; it is enough to show a few of his photos to someone unfamiliar with photography and Eggleston, and ask them which country they think these photos belong to?! The answer is undoubtedly America." Naturally, the most significant point of commonality between "Nebraska, Tampa" and its inspiration is this very color similarity, which serves as the formal core of Eggleston's works. However, as Boloury states: "Vahid has correctly grasped the nature of Egglestonian photography and ... has both captured the appearances and symbolically unveiled them. ... In most of Vahid's photos, the repetition of red and blue is the same Egglestonian refrain, and in the tenor of his representation lies the same boredom, routine, and consumerism."

This collection was photographed between 2022 and 2024, with the majority of the photos taken on Nebraska Avenue in Tampa, America. This street, with its old structure and diversity of colors, provided the opportunity to approach the objectivity of Eggleston's images. Nevertheless, as Vahid points out throughout his statement, this straight and seemingly unproblematic photography poses many challenges for a non-American photographer. In his project statement, he writes:

"I enjoy the discovery and revelation of the connection between objects in a landscape or urban space and their formal play within the photographic frame, and as a straight photography practitioner, I use this medium to capture them. On this basis, finding a 'subject matter' in the American public or private space became challenging for me. This is because, apart from the pressures arising from political issues, the slightest inclination towards a subject matter leads the Western audience of my works to the question: What is your personal or racial connection to that subject matter?"

Such questions satisfy a significant part of the concerns of the photographic practice approach; because, regardless of the content within the photos, the capture and presentation of these photos by a photographer belonging to a different society reveals institutional issues. The fact that the reason for producing such images is subject to question indicates what presupposed expectations art institutions have of every individual.