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
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
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)…
The exhibit designed by Ashtary Design opened the week of June 12th in Tehran’s Saba Cultural Center.
For information about how your cultural institution can rent this traveling exhibit, email us at info (AT) ashtarydesign.com or leave a comment on this post, and we will get back to you.
Saba to honor Dutch golden age painters
From Iran Mania Sunday, June 10, 2007 - July 10, 2007 IranMania.com
LONDON, June 10 (IranMania) - The Saba Art and Cultural Institute and the Netherlands Embassy in Tehran in a collaborative effort will commemorate Rembrandt and a number of other great 17th-centruy Dutch artists in an exhibition, which will be held from June 12 until July 10, MNA reported.
From Tehran Times Tehran Times Art Desk
TEHRAN — The Saba Art and Cultural Institute and the Netherlands Embassy in Tehran in a collaborative effort will commemorate Rembrandt and a number of other great 17th-centruy Dutch artists in an exhibition, which will be held from June 12 until July 10.From Iran Daily An exhibition of copies of paintings by Rembrandt and three other artists belonging to the ’golden age’ of Dutch art is currently underway at Saba Cultural Center in Tehran and will continue until July 1.
According to ISNA, the inaugural ceremony was attended by a number of Iranian and foreign artists, Dutch charge d’affairŽs as well as the Canadian, Czech, Korean, Romanian, Mexican and Hungarian ambassadors and representatives of the UN and UNICEF.
Friday, June 22
5:00-7:00 pm
Pages for All Ages
1201 Savoy Plaza
Savoy, IL 61874
After our morning interview with David Inge, we will head over to Pages for All Ages for a book signing. Come buy a book (just $22.00!) and chat with us. We look forward to seeing you there.
On Friday, June 22, 10 am
Tune your radios to am 580 if you are in the WILL listening area, or listen to us online at the Focus 580 website. On Friday, June 22 at 10:00 am, Tori and Kamran will be giving an interview to David Inge on WILL am in Champaign, Illinois.
Prepare some questions and phone in!
Sunday, June 24, 2007, 7:00pm
Temple Beth Emet
2309 Packard St.
Ann Arbor, MI
Talk by Tori Egherman & Kamran Ashtary
Tori and Kamran have just returned to the US after living in Tehran for over three years. She and her husband have documented their experiences in a popular blog and in a photo book entitled Iran: View from Here. The book provides a visual insight to the diversity of day-to-day life in Iran and will be available for purchase (Just $22.00!). Reception follows the talk.
Wednesday, June 27, 7:00 pm
Bombadills Café in Ypsilanti
217 W. Michigan Ave.
Ypsilanti, MI.
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to live and work in a country made infamous by its inclusion in “The Axis of Evil?” We invite you to come hear Tori Egherman, an American who spent 3.5 years living in Iran, and her husband Kamran Ashtary speak about their experiences living in the Islamic Republic of Iran.
They will show photographs taken during their time in Iran and will be selling their photography book “Iran: View from Here.” ($22.00)
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
You can view it here: http://ashtarydesign.com/saveh.htm
In Persia is the city called Saveh, from which the three Magi set out when they came to worship Jesus Christ. Here, too, they lie buried in three sepulchres of great size and beauty. Above each sepulchre is a square building with a domed roof of very fine workmanship. The one is just beside the other. Their bodies are still whole, and they have hair and beards. One was named Beltasar, the second Gaspar, and the third Melchior.
Messer Marco asked several of the inhabitants who these Magi were; but no one could tell him anything except that they were three kings who were buried there in days gone by. But at last he learnt What I will tell you.
Three days farther on, he found a town called Kala Atashparastan, that is to say Town of the Fire-worshippers. And that is no more than the truth; for the men of this town do worship fire. And I will tell you why they worship it. The inhabitants declare that in days gone by three kings of this country went to worship a new-born prophet and took with them three offerings -gold, frankincense, and myrrh - so as to discover whether this prophet was a god, or an earthly king or a healer. For they said : ‘If he takes gold, he is an earthly king; if frankincense, a god; if myrrh, a healer.’
(This quote is from Robert Latham’s translation of Marco Polo’s book The Travels and was found on Farsinet
Saveh is a strange place just a couple of hours west and south of Tehran. Maz Maz, an Iranian snackfood giant has a factory nearby, a branch of the National Oil Company is located there, Azad University also has a branch in Saveh, and the best pomegranites in Iran, and perhaps the world, are reportedly grown in the fields surrounding this town.
It is reported that Marco Polo stayed in the ancient caravanserai in Saveh. He wrote about Saveh in his book The Description of the World. In that book, he relates that the people of Saveh told him that the three kings were buried at Saveh and that at least one of them was a Zoroastrian Priest.
One the National Geographic website, the authors write that the translations of Marco Polo’s books were filled with biases, editorial judgements, and errors.
For example, when some translators were presented with the news that the three Magi were buried at Saveh in Persia rather than in Cologne, they inserted that the people of Saveh tell many lies.
The fact is, that when the ticket taker at the caravanserai told us that Marco Polo stayed there, we had a hard time believing him too.
Links:
The Travels of Marco Polo — Volume 1
The Travels of Marco Polo — Volume 2
Were the Three Kings Persian?
National Geographic on Marco Polo
Farsinet’s round-up of information on the Three Kings
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