Capturing Iran’s Past

“I feel that time has past
I feel that moment is my share of history’s leaves”

Forugh Farrokhzad, "Window"

Here we journey through Iran’s past and four contemporary artists’ reflections of their present via the past. Engaging different moments of Iran’s modern history, none look further than the introduction of photography in the mid-19th century. We invite you to explore Iran’s modern history and the multiple stories of the four artists’ personal and collective communities.

Capturing Iran’s Past, PhotoArt
An exhibition in the Museum für Islamische Kunst, Berlin

Capturing Iran’s Past. FotoKunst – PhotoArt – هنر عکاسی was a special exhibition of contemporary Iranian photography in the Museum für Islamische Kunst, in Berlin from 7 November 2019 to 26 January 2020. The first of its kind for the museum, the exhibition presented multiple works of contemporary art alongside the museum’s permanent presentation of historical artworks including the museum’s famed Mshatta Facade (pictured here). The exhibition served as a reminder and celebration of the living cultural and artistic achievements of Iran and the numerous communities represented by the museum’s collection.

Shadi Ghadirian

Qajar, 1998

Including an all female cast, Shadi Ghadirian re-stages nineteenth-century Iranian studio-portraits in Qajar.

... or sunglasses.

Iran’s Earliest Photographs


Photography was first introduced in Iran in 1842, not long after its invention in 1839 in France. Quickly adopted, photography became a popular modern activity amongst Iranian elites. Nasir al-Din Shah Qajar (r. 1848-1896), himself, was a serious photographer and regularly photographed his wives and children. The women are often wearing shalitehs, adaptations of European ballet-tutus or presented with props, like bicycles ...

... and dolls. Today, these images are important documents of the court-life for women in the Qajar era.

The historical photographs present Iranian-Armenians, many of whom operated or frequented portrait-studios in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Juxtaposing the portraits to both entryways and ...

Capturing a Moment

Once the camera’s shutter closes, the moment the future photograph depicts has already past. Photography is thus bound to the past and can serve as a memory aid. Through its technical process, it was often regarded as capturing authentic moments or undistorted likenesses of a person. It is in this sense that photography was used in Iran from its introduction 1842 until the 1960s. With time, photography was used not only for objective documentation but also was adopted as an artistic medium.

What do official IDs reveal about their owners?

Beside other factors like common language, geography or religion, collective identity is shaped by a shared past, while individual identity is primarily based on personal experiences. An official record of Iranian collective and individual identities are life-long Iranian identity booklets, shenasnamehs. They record important events of an individual’s life, like birth, marriage, divorce, children’s birth and death. They were first introduced during the reign of Reza Shah Pahlavi. Following the Iranian revolution, new identity booklets were required.

Teraneh Hemami

Hall of Reflections, 2000-2012

Like many Iranians, Taraneh Hemami immigrated to the United States as a student in the 1970’s and later made her stay permanent. In Hall of Reflections ...

... Hemami collects photographs ...

... and letters from Iranian migrants in Northern California ...

... and creates mirror assemblages with this memorabilia. Hemami’s mirrors recall a common architectural feature in Iran ...

... the talar-e ayineh (mirror halls).

Layering mementoes on mirrors, Hemami connects the viewer’s experience of the migrants’ stories to this familiar element of Iranian architecture.

... the missing of another place, ...

Commemorating What’s Lost

The Iran-Iraq war began 1980 when Iraq invaded Iran hoping to take advantage of the post-revolutionary uncertainties in the country. The war ended eight years later after the United Nations negotiated a cease-fire, and the borders between Iran and Iraq remained nearly unchanged. For those who lived through the war, its impact was great and persists today. Thousands died on both sides, and many Iranian victims continue to be remembered through photographs and murals incorporated in Iranian cityscapes. Young men, in particular, are commemorated as martyrs and their loss has been etched in the memories of all of those who witnessed the war.

The exhibition Capturing Iran’s Past. FotoKunst – PhotoArt – هنر عکاسی shown in the Museum für Islamische Kunst Berlin (07 Nov 2019 - 26 Jan 2020) was funded by the Hauptstadtkulturfonds Berlin and the Freunde des Museums für Islamische Kunst e.V. In cooperation with the artists as well as the Afrand Gallery Tehran, AG Galerie Tehran and Silk Road Gallery Tehran.

Catalogue