Once upon a time of dark troubled nights, storyteller & artist Yasmin Etemadi daydreamed into life her first tale; a vivid spontaneous daydream that surprised her. It moved her to action. So she decided to build upon this gift of an idea & bring it to life & to share it with others. Thus began these Tales from the Black Night of the Soul, a narrative set of tales combining autobiography & imagination, of fact, fiction & fable. It is a journey of heart.

One tale led to another, then another, & soon a collection of quirky photographs were born from visual play & Sculpey. These Tales from the Black Night of the Soul are hybrids of daydreams, memories, & fictions, a
mixture of childhood experiences, adult anxieties & cultural / historical complexities all tangled & woven together to create an individual & unique visual texture. Each tale told from the narrators voice, visually
distills a distinctive moment in an unfolding storyline, a singular snapshot of an ongoing event frozen in time. These storyline characters are captured & held in place by the camera in an eternal pose. The faded colors in each tale suggest the passing of time & loss of memories, transitions & rites of passage from childhood to maturity.

As a whole, these tales depict the growth of soul & consciousness against the backdrop of worldly absurdities & desires. They are visual invitations to explore a universe of storytelling, becoming catalysts
to ignite the viewer’s own creative imagination to life.