In Champaign Sept. 10th? Stop by the Library at 7:00 pm…
September 1st, 2007… To hear Tori talk about our book:
Iran: View from Here
Date: Monday, September 10, 2007
Time: 7:00 PM - 08:00 PM
Location: Champaign Main Library on Randolph and Green
Even though Kamran was born in Iran, he left during his teen years and saw the same images of Iran that people outside Iran saw: images of the Iran-Iraq war and women in black chadors, flag-burning, fists in the air, and demonstrations. These are the images of Iran. It seems unimaginable that that Kamran, someone who fled from the worst excesses of the Islamic revolution, would bring his American Jewish wife to Iran or that she would willingly go. But he did and she did.
What was it like for an American to travel in Iran? How were we greeted? What was it like to try to conform to the necessities of Islamic law with its prohibitions on public affection and alcohol, and the restrictions of women’s clothing? What about photography? How did people react to the camera?
These questions are some of those addressed in this talk.
In the introduction to the photo book Iran: View from Here, Kamran writes:
Tori and I came here with a bag full of our large format camera equipment and our heavy tripod. We both are used to setting up and controlling our images, but in Iran everything was set up for us. We did not come here to photograph Iran. We thought we would take some portraits of my family and the people we meet here. We never took the large-format camera out of the bag. Everything happened too fast and too powerfully and too emotionally. Our high-tech digital low-resolution camera is the only camera we used or misused. We took thousands of pictures, and we missed thousands of pictures. We still don’t have a single picture of Persepolis or the tomb of Hafez. Our small camera went almost everywhere with us; it fit easily into our pockets and easily into our lives.
We took the pictures that presented themselves to us. This may not be the Iran you dream of or imagine – an Iran of wild parties or religious fervor or battle – but it is the Iran we experienced. I will have to leave before I can know if I will miss Iran.
The book is available for sale at Pages for All Ages in Savoy and online at ashtarydesign.com. Tori will also have copies available at the library for the low, low price of $22.00. Hope to see you there!
Perhaps the biggest cliché about Iran is the truest: that it is a country of paradoxes, surprises, and contradictions. A man raises his fist into the air, shouts Down with America, and then welcomes an American into his house. A woman in a chador advocates for an end to Iran’s restrictions on women’s dress while the one in the tight jacket and barely-there scarf claims that she has no problems with the restrictions. Mullahs provide dating services and write Weblogs. A snowy day in north Tehran looks like a winter wonderland postcard. 
