In Speak the Wind, Afshar does not approach cultural history and its reflections as a traditional documentarian: she lifts the lid off her own imagination, as she photographs colourful images of rocks that take on more new shapes, the longer you look at them, the derelict ruins of a 15th-century Portuguese fort, or portraits of men and women who carry traces of life on their faces. In other words, she keeps ‘a visible record of the invisible seen through the eye of the imagination’.

Afshar’s portraits dance in harmony amongst the changing tones of heat and colour, while saluting darkness and loneliness. As the healing words pouring from a shaman’s mouth perform their duty, it is possibleto hear them in Swahili, Arabic or Persian, depending on the direction of the wind. In a sense, Speak the Wind follows both the visual and auditory traces of a path. It is also a collective tide, bringing together opposites. Relief and leaving behind a part of oneself. Progress and regression. Laughing and lamenting. Surviving and dying...

As Afshar indicates in her work, wind is not only a means of transmission between generations, that carries and connects spirits. The existence of similar beliefs and practices in many African countries explains how this idea has expanded its dominance in the region and how it has become a cross-cultural myth. Although an infinite number of stories have been produced about the essence of life, these photographs do not refrain from celebrating existence, rendering otherworldly landscapes slowly carved by the wind as part of its mystery. Secrets and mysteries. Realities and dreams. Desires and wishes… All dancing together.