Note by Pulitzer Prize Winner, Kim Komenich, 2012:
" In editing the photos for this book I had to continually remind myself that Mohammad is 26 years old and that this amazing set of images is only his first dispatch from the planet earth. When I talk to students about the world’s great photojournalists and documentary photographers I tell them that often there is personal experience that has redefined the photographer’s vision. There is a moment when a new set of tools becomes available. There are the learned mechanical skills-- composition, sensitivity to light and color and moment-- techniques that can be sharpened through practice and perseverance. Then there are the almost mystical, poetic skills that have their home in the heart. “Moe” began taking newspaper and wire service photos in Iran in his teens and like most photojournalists, he covered events and celebrities on deadline for a living. Moe’s “defining experience” came after photos he took in 2007 of a public flogging in Iran were published around the world. Upon learning of his imminent arrest he fled into exile. And in exile he has remained. He has worked hard. Rarely does the skill set of a young photographer combine the poetic ability to capture a moment of intimacy in a grand vista with the people skills necessary to strike up an intimate photographic relationship with a room full of strangers. There are a few of Moe’s early wire agency images here, but they serve to help define the photographer he has become. Where before he photographed big events and sought to capture “their” experience, his images are now about “our” experience, as witnessed by a compassionate, empathetic fellow traveler."