Persian Visions: Contemporary Photography from Iran, an exhibition of more than 60 works of photography and video installations by 20 of Iran's most celebrated photographers. The exhibition gathers personal perspectives of contemporary Iran filtered through individual sensibilities, while simultaneously addressing public concerns.

Iran has long distinguished itself with the spectacular quality and international presence of its visual art and film. With the backdrop of increasing attention given to the art and culture of Iran and the current political crisis in that part of the world, an exhibition with this focus is most timely. In expressing their many different visions of their world, these artists offer a look at both private and public realms. Their perspectives contradict the way many foreign photographers typically capture Iran on film as purely exotic.

Shokoufeh Alidousti offers self-portraits and family photographs exploring both cultural and female identity. Esmail Abbasi draws on Persian literature for his subject matter with contemporary notes on the present circumstances in Iran . Shahriar Tavakoli focuses on his family history through a series of portraits capturing the subtleties and mood of the Iranian family. In Koroush Adim's Revelation series, the images in the exhibition that feature the veil acknowledge this sign of culture, and yet the "revelation" is anything but simple. Shahrokh Ja'fari's use of unusual spatial rendering in depicting the veiled figure demands that the viewer look harder and think harder about what can be revealed through the visual.

The images presented in Persian Visions cannot entirely surmount the physical and cultural distance between Iran and the United States; nevertheless, the exhibition builds a visual bridge that allows for differences, even as it leads viewers to new awareness of other ways of being and seeing.

Persian Visions was developed by Hamid Severi for the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, Iran, and Gary Hallman of the Regis Center for Art, University of 
Minnesota, and toured by International Arts & Artists, Washington , D.C. This exhibition was made possible in part by ILEX Foundation, University of Minnesota McKnight Arts and Humanities Endowment; and the Department of Art, the Regis Center for Art, University of Minnesota.

Related Persian Visions Events:

Opening Reception and Gallery Talk: September 5, 7 pm

Gallery Talk and Slide Show by Carol and Gary Graham: September 13, 1 pm

Artini: Thicker Than Water, September 18, Gita Saedi Film, 5:30-9 pm

Curator Gallery Talk by Gary Hallman: October 3, 7 pm

Persian Visions Tour and Discussion with Gary Hallman: October 4,

12 pm

Purchase the Persian Visions catalog online from our bookstore!