… 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!

The Champaign News Gazette featured our book in their Sunday September 16, 2007 book section.

If you can read German, there is an article about us at sueddeutsche.de

If you happen to be in Shanghai and read the Shanghai Evening Post, make sure to look for the interview with Tori.

In Impressions magazine: Iran: A View From Here 2003-2006

In Persian Mirror: Review of New Book ‘Iran: A View From Here’

In Payvand: A Love Letter from Iran

We’ve gotten some nice posts on our book in a few blogs. Read for yourself:

View from Iran at Harry’s Place

“Iran: View from Here”, A Look at Iran from inside on Mideast Youth, Arabisto, and Kamangir.net

American Blogger in the land of “Down with USA” on Global Voices

Iran: View from Here on Thought Process

View from Iran, View from Here on Pars Arts

Interview: Tori Egherman’s View from Iran with Pam on Blogher

Books are $23.00 or €17.00

(For credit card purchases, click on a “BUY NOW” button on our home page)
Checks and money orders and transfers should be made to Ashtary Design

In the Netherlands:

Ashtary Design
(To pay online or by acceptgiro) Postbank giro nummber 9350983

For international transfers:
Account name: Ashtary Design
Bank: Postbank
Location: The Netherlands
IBAN: NL13PSTB0009350983
BIC: PSTBNL21

Checks for ($) dollar amounts should be mailed to:

For shipping in the US of A add $2.50 per book to your order, outside the US €6.80:

Ashtary Design
c/o American Classifieds
61 E. University, Box 25
Champaign, IL 61820

Don’t forget to send us your shipping address!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

IRAN VIEW FROM HERE

Photos by: Kamran Ashtary & Tori Egherman
Text by: Kamran Ashtary and Tori Egherman with an afterward by Thomas Erdbrink
Design by: Kamran Ashtary
Published by: Ashtary Design & Deem Communications
Printed: Armenia 2007
ISBN: 978-99941-2-067-3

Contact:
Kamran Ashtary
kamran.ashtary (AT) gmail (DOT) com
Tori Egherman
tori.egherman (AT) gmail (DOT) com
For high-resolution images, for purchase information, for interviews, or for any other information about the book, contact Tori Egherman.

Download a pdf file of the complete press release with text and images (509 kb)

Everything that you can say about Iran is true.

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.

Iran: View from Here features photographs taken over three years of living in Iran. It is a personal account that features images of Iran that not only include the snow-covered mountains and desert expanses that surround the county but also images that illustrate the culture of Iran: images of mourning and celebration, of day-to-day life, and of special events. The book captures an Iran that eludes the casual visitor and often escapes the notice of professional photographers.

Like many returning Iranians, Kamran returned to his home country when his mother fell ill – his first visit in the twenty two years since he had left. A few months later he made another visit, this time bringing his wife, Tori, along. What was meant as three-month tour became a three-year odyssey.

This book visually documents their last three plus years in Iran: the time when they called Tehran “home.”

Read the rest (pdf file)…

You can buy the book at these Amsterdam bookstores:

Selexyz Scheltema (near Leidseplein)
Koningsplein 20
1017 BB Amsterdam
www.sexyz.nl

Boekhandel Fotografia
2e Laurierdwaarstraat 64
1016 RC Amsterdam
www.fotografia.nl

Athenaeum Boekhandel
Spui 14-16
1012 XA Amsterdam

Hoogstins
Kinkerstraat 117
1053 DL Amsterdam
www.hoogstins.nl

Plantage Books & More
Overtoom 8-8A
1054 HH Amsterdam
www.plantagebooksandmore.nl

Our book was featured in IMPRESSIONS, the Inflight magazine of BMED operating as British Airways

IRAN: A VIEW FROM HERE 2003-2006
By Kamran Ashtary and Tori Egherman
With Iran in the news so often, it’s easy to forget that behind the political intrigue there lies a vast country in which people do their best to live normal lives. Iran: A View from Here is unusual in that it presents the ordinary, yet diverse aspects of Iran that visitors rarely see and which escape professional photographers who are too busy snapping mountains, deserts and funky Tehrani girls walking past traditional chador-clad women. Ashtary and Egherman have been living in Iran for three years and this book is the result of those years, in which they worked, visited families, took part in rituals of life and death and walked in the mountains outside Tehran. They bring a unique perspective to a complicated country and accompany their photographs with some moving essays depicting the strong emotions evoked by life in Iran.
$22.00 plus shipping and taxes from www.ashtarydesign.com
By Kamin Mohammadi

The first review of our book is online! Entitled A Love Letter from Iran, the review is by author Kamin Mohammadi. She writes:

In describing Iran one is in danger of wearing out that age-old cliché – this is a land of contrasts – and Tori and Kamran’s book does not attempt to explain away the complexity or many contradictions or try to make sense of them. But within the atmospheric range of images and bittersweet essays printed here, they beautifully capture and communicate the immense charm of Iran, its ability to enslave the heart, and the tenacity of its hold over the affections in spite of the frustrations of living there. Most of all, this book is a visual love letter to a country that can befuddle the mind and nourish the soul all at the same time.

Read the rest online at Payvand.

And don’t forget to buy the book!

Pay with a credit card or a Paypal account:

Outside the US, use this button:

The price of $23.00 does not include shipping. Shipping takes 1-3 weeks.

In the Netherlands:

Ashtary Design
(To pay online or by acceptgiro) Postbank giro nummber 9350983

For international transfers:
Account name: Ashtary Design
Bank: Postbank
Location: The Netherlands
IBAN: NL13PSTB0009350983
BIC: PSTBNL21

Checks for ($) dollar amounts should be mailed to:

For shipping in the US of A add $3.50 per book to your order, outside the US €7.00:

Ashtary Design
c/o American Classifieds
61 E. University, Box 25
Champaign, IL 61820

Don’t forget to send us your shipping address!

You can send us your shipping address with this form:

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