Glimpses of nineteenth century Iran
The nineteenth century photos from Iran, commissioned by the ruling monarch are delightful. A special photographer was assigned the task to capture shots of the harem and the results were unique. Apparently, these photos have also been used by contemporary artists as their inspiration as well as material.
Read about this story and view more pictures here.
Great quotes from the link above:
“We were lucky that the king fell in love with photography,.. “because it was the king who started taking pictures. The Islamic clerics could not oppose him.”
“Iran is the only Muslim country in the Middle East where photography developed in a natural environment…Because it was supported by the state, different branches of photography flourished. (The King wrote in his handwriting: Irani was sick and a mattress was laid for her near the gardeners’ room.)”






June 19th, 2007 at 4:37 pm
[...] Full entry here >> This entry is filed under History, Iran, heritage, Arts & Culture, Photo stories, All My Posts, World Artists. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. 3 Responses to “Glimpses of nineteenth century Iran” 1 cubano says: June 2nd, 2007 at 11:32 pm This is really interesting. Good find. 2 Alvi says: June 5th, 2007 at 1:13 pm Raza: Thank you for this treat. Looking forward for more articles on Iran & Afghanistan. 3 Meghan says: June 6th, 2007 at 4:09 am Great article. Culturally, why was photography not initially embraced by other middle eastern countries? Did it have to do with the chemical process or the potential vanity? Leave a Reply [...]