Days on the Way
Shot entirely on an iPhone inside the women-only carriages of the Tehran–Karaj metro line, Days on the Way is Parastoo Ghahremanifard’s raw and poetic study of in-between moments. What begins as a daily commute unfolds into a meditation on silence, repetition, and quiet defiance. Parastoo documents a suspended reality where exhaustion is etched into faces. In this overlooked public space, the everyday becomes a stage for both weariness and resilience.
Photography Parastoo Ghahremanifard"Days on the Way" is my visual narrative of moments suspended in nowhere. These are prolonged and weary intervals lived within the metro line between the cities of Tehran and Karaj. It is a space where people, caught in the monotony of daily commute, seem to drift in silence, fatigue, and indifference, with no new destination truly awaiting them. At first, the metro was merely a means of transport for me. But over time, in the absence of conversation and the presence of solitude, it became suffocating.
Photography offered a small window of relief: a chance to truly see those around me — people who were physically close, yet distant, as if invisible to themselves and each other. This project began unintentionally on April 20, 2025, and has continued ever since. I have captured over 200 images so far. All of them were taken on a mobile phone (iPhone XS) within the women-only carriages. These spaces may seem separate, yet they reflect broader societal realities.
For me, the metro encapsulates the essence of urban life in contemporary Iran. It is a place where time stretches, hope fades, and faces wear the weight of exhaustion. Yet, within that darkness, there are flickers of light: the laughter and eyes of children, or the presence of women who, despite repeated warnings from authorities, choose to remove their mandatory hijabs.
Following the death of Mahsa Amini in 2022 and the rise of the Woman, Life, Freedom movement, the metro too became a quiet stage of resistance. Here, women courageously assert their presence, unveiled, in the face of surveillance and repression. They carry hope into a space saturated with silence and repetition. This series is an attempt to document this suspended state of living. It is a portrait of people navigating the in-between — between departure and arrival, between presence and absence — living through fragile, fleeting moments of truth.
“Photography offered a small window of relief: a chance to truly see those around me — people who were physically close, yet distant, as if invisible to themselves and each other.”
About Parastoo
She was born in 1999 in Karaj, Iran. In 2025, she received her Master’s degree in Urban Design from the College of Fine Arts, University of Tehran. Her passion for photography began in high school and has since grown alongside her deep interest in cinema and cities. She is particularly drawn to wandering through urban spaces, observing people, and listening to their stories — capturing silent moments that reflect human presence and place.
Parastoo is a self-taught photographer who sees photography not just as a visual practice, but as a way to narrate hidden layers of everyday life.
To see more of her work follow her on Instagram
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