Asia Photo Books

PARISA DAMANDAN, Portrait Photographs from Isfahan Faces in transition 1920-1950, Londen 2004. Softcover 24 x 30 cm. 263 pag. met 269 zwart-wit foto's.

"Parisa Damandan spent over ten years accumulating an impressive collection of pioneering early twentieth-century photographs from her hometown of Isfahan. Recently emancipated women posing in various state of dress; Polish war refugees on their tortuous journey home after fleeing the Nazis; men in fashionable hats or in traditional turbans and cloaks - these portraits offer a window on the changing face of Iranian society during a period of transition from a traditional to a modern culture.Alongside these images are essays on the development of portraiture in Isfahan, the social dimensions of portrait photography in Iran and the power of the gaze. The establishment of the Islamic Republic of Iran in 1979 meant women were forced to wear the hijab and photographs of them uncovered were forbidden. As a result, many photographers' studios were burnt to the ground, while remaining archives of invaluable glass-plate negatives were left to moulder in attics."

PERESS,G.,Telex Iran, München 1997. Hardcover 37,6 x 26,7 cm. 102pag. met 100 zwart-wit afb.

"The political collision of America and Iran, which resulted in the 1981 hostage crisis, brought Peress to Iran. Telex Iran, one of the finest photojournalistic monographs ever printed, is what he brought back. This study grew out of a trip the author took to Iran in 1981 during the famous hostage drama. Horrified by what he experienced during that trip, Peress communicated his thoughts by telex to friends back home. These messages act as a parallel commentary to the photographs he took at the same time."

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