12 PHOTOGRAPHIC JOURNEYS – IRAN IN THE 21ST CENTURY
Exhibition | Introduction

Venue: 
Brunei Gallery, SOAS, Thornhaugh St., London WC1H 0XG.

Dates and Hours:
15 October - 12 December 2003
Monday - Friday 10.30am-5.00pm.

Organised by:
The Iran Heritage Foundation and
Silk Road Gallery
in association with
The School of Oriental and African Studies (Univ. of London).

Curated by:
Anahita Ghabaian
Minou Saberi.

Sponsored by:
Asia House
Ahmad Ghabaian
Abbas Gharib
Kanoon Informatik
Mrs. Shah Hosseiny
London Middle East Institute
Mrs. Malek.

Introduction:
This exhibition presents twelve photographic voyages through Iran in the twenty-first century. The ten participating photographers have each chosen a different aspect of daily life in their country: a cafe, a bus trip, a shopping center, a ‘living martyr’, the clerics etc. This kaleidoscopic vision of Iran takes the viewer to the very heart of the variety and contradictions of a people among whom nothing seems to be in its place. A mosaic of contrasts appears in behavior and attitudes, juxtaposing a world at the same time modern and archaic.

Themes in the work of certain of our photographers overlap; each lay stress on a particular aspect of life. But one theme runs through them all: the woman. She is everywhere. The Iranian woman perhaps exists, perhaps unconsciously, at every level. While under the rule of the ‘hijab’, she still appears in the streets, in the shopping malls and cafes with her make-up and her scarf lightly slipping from her head. She tests the limit of the ‘hijab’ and emerges from the images to be like young women everywhere in the world. 

Participating photographers:
- Mehraneh Atashi
- Hana Darabi
- Bahman Jalali
- Farzaneh Khademian
- Arshia Kiani
- Abbas Kowsari
- Yalda Moaieri
- Javad Montazeri
- Omid Salehi
- Hamideh Zolfaghari

Admission: 
Free.

Enquiries:
020 7493 4766, info@iranheritage.org, 
020 7898 4046, gallery@soas.ac.uk.