Purple Travel
[11/11/2026]
“Tide,” a photographic project by Mehrdad Mosaferi explores life along the shores of the Persian Gulf
I was born and raised in Bandar Abbas, on the northern shores of the Persian Gulf. The sea is not a landscape to me; it is part of my memory, childhood, and everyday life. Swimming, traveling across the water, fishing, and countless moments spent looking toward the horizon are experiences I share with many people who have grown up along these shores.
Tide emerges from this lived experience. The project explores the relationship between people and a sea whose meaning for the world often differs from what it represents to those who call it home. While the Persian Gulf is frequently associated with politics, energy, and global trade, this work turns toward the everyday lives, memories, expectations, and dreams that unfold in the quietness of the shoreline.
Among them are children who are not yet fully aware of the scale or meaning of many of the events and tensions surrounding them. They continue to play, grow, and imagine their futures. Yet the forces moving through this geography, often unseen or not fully understood, are also present beneath the surface of their lives and the futures taking shape before them.
Beneath these everyday moments, memories, and dreams, traces of larger political and economic decisions also exist-forces that, often invisibly, have shaped the lived experiences and collective memories of those who inhabit this coastline.
For me, the tide is more than a natural phenomenon; it is a metaphor for arrival and departure, hope and absence, remaining and passing. Just as the sea continuously transforms the shoreline, life in this geography moves between change and continuity, waiting and hope.
This project is an attempt to portray the sea not from the perspective of an outside observer, but from within the memory of someone whose life has been connected to the rhythms of this coast from the beginning.
Photos and Text by Mehrdad Mosaferi
