Akbar Nazemi: Unsent Dispatches From The Iranian Revolution, 1978 – 1979

Curated by: Pantea Haghighi and Bill Jeffries

Akbar Nazemi was a young photographer who came back home from studying photography in Dusseldorf when the Iranian Revolution began in June 1978. This is the first gallery exhibition of what are arguably the best photographs of that watershed moment that has continued to have a powerful global impact to this day. Questions about the value of ‘culture’ and more specifically, the value of ‘art’ abound, even during a revolution. What is contemporary art in the revolutionary context? Of what value is art for the sake of art when one’s society is either crumbling or being transformed? Akbar Nazemi’s photographs of the Iranian Revolution were made at substantial personal risk. He was an active participant, making images during the day and processing film or distributing communications by night. The images document the reaction to twenty-five years of rule by The Shah of Iran, as well as the first mass demonstration of the rise of militant Islam. The negatives were smuggled out of Tehran in the 1980s.

PHG gratefully acknowledges the financial support of this exhibition and its catalogue from Dr. Mehdi Meshgini, Archibald Clarke & Defieux Insurance Services and Opus Framing & Art Supplies.