The Moon Belongs to Everyone critically examines how migration transforms perceptions of collective identity. While personal experience informs Mehrfar’s approach, the photographs in this series adopt a universal perspective, expanding upon conventional narratives of immigration. The project maps immigrant experiences across diverse geographies, from snow-covered to lush tropical landscapes, positioning place as existing between origin and destination. Still lives of familiar objects take on symbolic significance as memories imbue them with meaning. Vibrant color fields simultaneously invite and resist interpretation, and portraits of individuals in indeterminate spaces suggest a community that is not subject to borders.
References to celestial bodies—the moon and sun—recur throughout, offering unexpected grounding moments in the otherworldly. Through these visual strategies, Stacy Arezou Mehrfar establishes a visual language that mirrors the disorientation of relocating home. The Moon Belongs to Everyone moves beyond political narratives, illuminating the psychological effects of leaving one’s home and the complex process of establishing identity in unfamiliar terrain.
Stacy Arezou Mehrfar produced this work between 2014-2021, during a period of profound shifts in global discourse around immigration and nationhood. This project offers a nuanced perspective on migration.
