ashtary design

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

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Click here for a slideshow from our trip to Hamadan

Where are you from?” The traffic cop asked, leaning into the window.

“America,” I answered.

“No that is not possible,” he laughed.

“They’re Italian,” a passerby offered.

My travelling companion was exhausted after driving at night behind long lines of trucks on the 2-lane highway between Tuyserkan and Hamadan. “Just tell us how to get to the Ferdosi Square,” she said.

Eventually we wandered into our hotel — what was it’s name? — on Takhti street near Ferdosi Square.

Hamadan is a more interesting place than people give it credit for. For one, the drive to it is stunning. It is easy to imagine silk road travellers coming to this amazing place in the mountains and marveling at its riches: cool summer weather, water, trees, a gentle valley. It is easy to imagine the ancient city from today’s modern city. Ancient ruins pop up in the strangest places. There is the Alavian tomb in a schoolyard. Another tomb sits next to an apartment block.

I enjoyed visiting Avicenna’s tomb. What an amazing man he was! It is thanks to our philosopher friends Joep and Yeganeh that I know even the small amount I do about Abu Sina / Avicenna.

And, of course, there is the tomb of Mordecai and Esther. I don’t even care if Esther is not buried there. The monument is still great. We had the bad luck to visit it on the Sabbath and on Purim, so the tomb itself was closed.

Many travellers go to Hamadan expecting the ancient city of Ekbatan and are, therefore, disappointed. We went with lower expectations and loved it.

Click here for a slideshow from our trip to Hamadan

What others are saying:

About Hamadan
More about Hamadan
The account of a Russian spelunker about exploring caves near Hamadan
Quotes from Habakkuk
Habakkuk on Wikipedia

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!

We really appreciate it!

Watch for our next book: The Iranians. It is a book of photographs of the people we have met during more than three years in Iran. The book is an homage to Robert Frank’s The Americans (a book we love from a photographer we admire.)

Kermanshah. A family picnicking in the parking lot of Bisotun.

If you would like to be notified of the book’s publication, email us at tori.egherman (AT) gmail (DOT) com.

Thanks!

Click on any of the links below to see a slide show of photographs taken during our travels in Iran:

Kordestan / Kurdistan

Kermanshah, Bisotun, Taqe Bostan

Vali Asr

Qeshm & Minab

Preview of the book Iran: View from Here

Trip to Hamadan

Qashqai

A trip to Saveh

Click here for the flash slideshow of Kurdistan and here for a slideshow of Kermanshah.

Before flying to Kermanshah, Kamran and I ran into the city’s favorite son, Shahram Nazeri, in a bank on Jordan Street in North Tehran. “Kheli big fan hastam,” (I’m a big fan) I told him. Kamran and I first saw him perform in 1990 at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM: not in Kerman) and then a few months later at Town Hall in Manhattan. He gave me a few tips about Kurdistan and Kermanshah, which I felt was a good omen for our trip.

What a trip! The flight was beautiful enough. We flew beside one snow-covered mountain range after another before coming in for a landing over rolling green fields. The mountains in and around Kermanshah are terrifying. They look as though they were wrenched from the Earth with cataclysmic violence. The clouds that formed around the peaks of the cliffs felt like the remains of dragon fire to me. “I don’t think I could live with these mountains,” I told my friend Kate. “They scare me.”

Kermanshah is on the road to Karbala. It must have been really hopping right after Iraq was invaded when pilgrims from Iran were travelling to Karbala in great numbers.

From Kermanshah, we made a one-day trip into (Iranian) Kurdistan or Kordestan (however you choose to spell it.) The landscape was just awe-inspiring with the first touches of green. We headed for gorgeous Palangan: a village that straddles two sides of a river. There the women were happy to visit with us. We were called over to talk to several groups as they watched their children, wove horse bridles, and chatted.

On the way back, we saw huge lines of cars and trucks backed up at gas stations. Apparently rationing has begun in Kurdistan: mainly to prevent gasoline from being smuggled into Iraq. On top of that, the Iranian government has set up customs patrols on the border between Kermanshah and Kurdistan. Hmmm…

Anyway, click here for the flash slideshow of Kurdistan and here for a slideshow of Kermanshah.

What others are saying:

Blog by the rock climbers at Bisotun (In Persian, but with great photos!)

From Onze Man in Teheran (in Dutch)

From Shiva the Spy: Long Live Kordistan

The nature of Kurdistan in Persian and English

Bisotun World Heritage Site

From Angus McDowall

Travelling to Kermanshah

Kordestan: Stunning Scenery and Paranoid Police

Review of inscriptions at Taqe (Taghe) Bostan

About Shahram Nazeri (My favorite Iranian male singer):

Buy his music online at Iranmehr.com

Read about him here and here and listen to song samples here.

At The Jazz Breakfast, an album featuring Shahram Nazeri is rated as one of the best of 2006.

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Pomegranite juice stand on Valiasr.

Click here to see a flash slideshow of featured images from our walk from the bottom of Valiasr Street to the top.

“What time 2morrow?” I smsed.

“8.”

“Yr nuts. 9.”

At 10:30 the next morning, Angus McDowall and I arrived at the foot of Valiasr street. It’s a bustling area that features Tehran’s railway station and a digital pollution monitor. The pollution was below the warning levels as we set off up the street.

Valiasr street is the longest, continuous city street in the Middle East. It runs the north-south length of Tehran from the train station to Tajrish.

At one point, Angus got pulled into a discussion about world affairs with a group of men who were gathered around a tray filled with dates and “denmarki” (delicious pastries named for Denmark). “We don’t want war,” one man told him. “But if war comes, we will fight. You have to remember that when we kill in war, we are victorious. When we are killed in war, we are also victorious.”

One of the young men Angus was speaking with tagged along for awhile, worried that we would get lost. I am not sure how that would be possible since we were planning to stay on one street for about 8 hours…

My favorite places were the fruit juice shop where I had amazing carrot juice followed by a chaser of sweet lemon juice (not lemonade: sweet lemons are an Iranian fruit unlike any other that I have ever tasted. Its taste is unlike a Myer lemon or any other sweetish lemon that I had before visiting Iran.) and the stamp shop with the owner and his one inch long pinkie nail and the 150 year old collection of stamps.

Oh yeah, and we had amazing Gemeh at a traditional restaurant off of Valiasr Square.

Look at what others have to say about Valiasr:

First read what Angus had to say about our walk: Vali Asr
Avenue Vali Asr
Sycamores of Valiasr Street
Inside Tehran
Photos from Sa-ee Park

Click here to see a flash slideshow of featured images from our walk from the bottom of Valiasr Street to the top.