TEHRAN & BEYOND…

In honour of Mr. Saeed Einifar, the former director of the department of photography, School of Fine Arts, University of Tehran

‘Tehran and Beyond’ collection on display is the result of efforts, follow-ups and dedications of Mehrdad Nadjmabadi and Reza Shojaei. Photographs by eight photography students from the School of Fine Arts who have strolled around Tehran and have captured the complexity of their city with their cameras and have presented us with their interpretations of it. These eight photographers have tried to carefully look at sections and fragments of their city and also to develop their own personal tone and language in describing it. An effort that is certainly not the first attempt. So, let’s look at the history of this path. Saeed Einifar was responsible for the photography dicipline during the hard and difficult mid 80s.With his utter love, dedication and passion he flourished and developed his students and created a vibrant and exciting atmosphere during two-three years that he was there. As an influential teacher, he paved the way for the presence of Yahya Dehghanpoor and Bahman Jalali.  The presence of these two masters, the new and challenging topics they initiated and the perspective they opened all became motivations for deeper thinking among us students through the artistic language of our cameras. I never forget, how despite all shortages and difficulties of those years Saeed Einifar prepared and provided all the means necessary to organise his students’ first exhibition in the building of the faculty of Architecture. (The show if I remember correctly was organised for students who had entered the faculty in 1983, 84 or 85). A movement and quest that perhaps was the symbol and the beginning of the development of our minds, our language of photography and artistic expression as students during those times. If my memory assists me, some of the photographs presented in that exhibition were images of urban landscapes. Around thirty years have passed from those days. Now that I look back, I feel as if a tradition in photography had formed in this faculty through the path crossed and the opportunities it opened in those years. With a hasty look I may be able to say that a connection with a space and a type of topography, awareness towards history and global movements in photography, influence and a conscious referral to these movements and quests for an individualistic observation are some of the characteristics of this school’s young tradition; a tradition that if it lasts can perhaps create an established approach and tradition in Iranian photography. Through all the efforts by individuals and groups of people who throughout the past three decades have presented and displayed photographs of this ethics, it might be possible to better and more accurately understand the unique characteristics of this tradition. Especially, during the past few years, through the several photography exhibitions – With the efforts of Arash Fayez, Ramyar Manouchehrzadeh and Mehrdad Nadjmabadi who organised exhibitions and with the support of Anahita Ghabaian at Silk Road Gallery where all these exhibitions took place of mostly students of this school – we have more evidence and recognition in hand of these characteristics than before. The continuity of this process while looking at the past and future makes this perspective more spectacular. It is good to try to investigate deeper into the less seen, less explored, less recognised and forgotten photographs of this period. Protection, process, purifying and exploring this tradition are the duty of us students of this faculty

Mehran Mohajer