Why?

I am home. Wherever I am, that's home.

I was born and raised in Tehran, Iran. I never really had the chance to know my home country as deeply as I wanted to. I left Iran when I was 25.
For a long time, I felt countryless. Homeless, in the deepest sense of the word.

My flight landed in London on 9 November 2008.
London opened her arms to me. She gave me space to learn, to stumble, to rebuild and to become someone different. It wasn't always easy. Some of it was painful.
But looking back, I know that much of who I became was shaped there.

I owe London a great deal, and probably always will.

By 2019, though, I knew I had to leave. I needed to find myself again. I needed to understand what/how I could give back, somehow.
I didn't know.
I simply stepped into the unknown.

And for years, I kept asking myself:

If it wasn't Tehran, and it wasn't London… where was home?

It took several cities, many roads and a few versions of myself to understand the answer.

I am home... Wherever I am, that's home.

Then I found myself in Cork.
And it was love at first sight.
Ireland, I mean.

There was something about this island that reached somewhere deep inside me. Almost immediately, I knew I wanted to grow old here.
But the stubborn part of me, the part that always wants an explanation, kept asking:

Why?

Saying ‘I feel it in my bones’ wasn't enough.

So, naturally, I took a DNA test.
I thought finding a little Irishness in my blood would finally answer the question.

It didn't.

I am 87% Persian, with the rest mostly Azerbaijani and neighbouring regions.
And yet, somehow, I felt embraced by the spirit of this island.

So why?

Not simply to admire her landscapes, photograph her extraordinary Atlantic light or appreciate the kindness of the people I've encountered since coming here, but to understand what it is about this place that has captured my heart so completely. I started looking for the answer during my morning walks at the Marina, somewhere between walking and thinking. And eventually, I realised that the only way to answer my question was to know Ireland better. The thread connecting all my homes was me. And perhaps the answer had always been there, in those quiet moments when the world was still half-asleep and the first light was beginning to arrive. All those beautiful early mornings I collected along the way:

Swimming in the Persian Gulf.
Walking along the shore in Hastings.
Sipping coffee, thinking about life and quietly whispering my gratitude.

Perhaps I had always been searching for the same thing:
the light.
And now, the first light.

So I am setting off.

County by county.
Road by road.
Sunrise by sunrise.

Across the 32 traditional counties of the island of Ireland.
I want to meet this island properly. To listen to her stories, wander through her landscapes, meet her people and discover the things that make her feel like home.

And I want to share that journey with you.

There will be mornings when I am completely seduced by the first light. There will also be cold mornings, grey mornings, rain, wrong turns and probably mornings when the sun never appears at all.

That's part of the journey too.

During the days, I will read, watch, wander and learn. And at night, while Ireland disappears into darkness, I will be writing a novel, letting her nights quietly feed my imagination.

First Light is my attempt to document all of it.

But there is another meaning to this journey.

For much of my life, I wondered where home was. Eventually, I came to understand that home isn't simply the country written beside your name or the place where you were born.

And yet having an actual home, somewhere safe and warm to return to at night, is something no one should have to wonder about.

Home should not be a privilege.

That is why First Light will also support two organisations working with people experiencing homelessness across this island:

Focus Ireland
Simon Community Northern Ireland

At every county sunrise, I will make one unique Instax photograph. Thirty-two counties will leave behind thirty-two original prints. When the journey is complete, the collection will be auctioned for charity.

The photographic equipment purchased for the project will also be sold, with the proceeds donated to the charities, along with the net profit from the first 100 copies of the book.

It's a small contribution.

But we can all chip in, in one way or another.

So I hope you'll come with me, not only to discover this extraordinary island, but to help make sure more people have somewhere safe and warm to return to when darkness comes. Somewhere safe and warm from which to wake up to another morning.

Hope the light finds us all.