The Fourth State is about a different Gilan Province. It is about a people who live in seclusion. Perched on top of mountains and among ancient forests, they have carved a life for themselves, one that is isolated, hard and with migration of younger generations, often lonely.
Kiarang Alaei’s wonderings in this part of Caspian Sea which is famous for its greenery and wondrous landscapes, are captured in Black and White and in midst of winter, snow and fog. Here is a rich land strangled by attitudes of its own people, an impasse, a deep sigh. It is about lost dreams and wishes, it is about existing in a different state; in another dimension, one that is fluid and dreamy. A place that demonstrates the collective behavior of its people.
Photographed in best traditions of documentary photography and by interpreting small realities of life, - perhaps somewhere over a rainbow- a subjective world is created. This might easily be the lost realm of magic, where within the obscure borders of dreams still persist. In absence of a horizon, and in hopelessness other things take shape, perhaps a different reality, one that is best described by the artist:
For me Gilan is not a revelation, it is a profound endurance. A patience that is essential for nourishment and for things to flourish. Like careful growing of rice seedlings in a nursery, or the process of curing white fish with salt and rubia. A patience as delicate as the tender silk Cocoons that Gilani women keep within the folds of their clothes; close to their skin for warmth so that they can hatch. A patience so silent that sustains fishermen who wait to catch fish from a barren river.