Exhibitions

Telling the truth in contemporary Iran is not easy but there still exists an abiding will to question the written assumptions, shake the foundations of the regime and knock down the walls and false pretences.  Photography in Iran, however, is a complicated business:  it becomes, at times, conceptual and, at other times, documentary, but it remains provocative, sly and disturbing.    Those passing under the veil of reality are women:  eight Iranians are showcasing the images of their struggle.

Shadi Ghadirian’s portraits of Iranian women wearing the chador, but with household implements where their faces should be, strike a cheeky and humorous blow at convention.  Tahmineh Monzari (who was arrested on 18 February) offers a selection of haunting images from the homeless and drug addicted women of Iran.   Mehran Atashi goes deep inside the male-only world of traditional Iranian wrestling parlours in Bodyless, a series of mirrored photographs.