Sanaz Mazinani Iran Revisited

Sanaz Mazinani’s colour diptychs and
marquee photographs explore the
physical landscape and human faces
of contemporary Iran, her country of
origin. Each image contains its own
narrative qualities and together they
create a complex portrait of the country.
The recent history of Iran familiar
to most outsiders begins with the
Islamic Revolution, followed by the
resulting social restrictions successive
leaders have imposed on the country.
This aspect of history is incomplete and
offers only a narrow view of Iranian
culture.

2009 marks the 30-year anniversary
of the Islamic Revolution. Today more
than half of Iran’s population is under
the age of 25, and many among this
new generation of Iranians are pushing
against boundaries. Some fight
against the clergy to hold on to their
more liberal family traditions, while
others fight against Western popular
culture as they struggle to find their
own identities. The photographs in
this series give us a privileged glimpse
of the everyday life in modern Iran.
From painted portraits of young martyrs
slowly peeling from the exterior
walls of mosques, to a still life of the
architectural remnants of the Persian
Empire, these photographs depict the
different ideologies that overlap in
Iran’s contemporary landscape.

Curated by Bonnie Rubenstein