مه ماسوله

Morning fog rolls through the village of Masuleh in the green mountains of Gilan. The village climbs so steeply that the flat roof of each row of houses is the street and yard of the row above: tier after tier of two-storey ochre-yellow clay houses with flat earthen roofs, carved wooden windows and wooden balconies, packed tightly together with no gardens or fields between them and linked by stone steps. A woman in a colorful Gilaki skirt and headscarf carries a woven basket along one of these rooftop lanes; chimney smoke curls into the fog and a cat sits on a railing. The camera slowly pulls back from her to reveal the stacked village. Soft diffuse light, cool green and ochre palette, 35mm lens, shallow depth of field at the start, calm documentary feel.