Source: Mehr News Agency; photos by Yuness Khani

Veteran photographer Akbar Nazemi is holding an exhibition at Tehran's Art Bureau Gallery depicting women who participated in the Islamic Revolution of 1979. A total of 85 photos that have not previously been published are currently on display at the gallery. "The unity among people from different social classes with different attire, the women who wore the Hijab and those who did not, was remarkable during the Islamic Revolution," he said.

He went on to say that he has prepared 120 photos for the exhibition but it was not possible to showcase them all due to the limited space of the gallery.

The cameras were analogue in those years and photographers could only take 36 pictures, so they were always worried about how many photos they had taken and also about loosing photos when developing the exposed film, Nazemi told ISNA.

He said that he took over 4000 photos during the Islamic Revolution and shot over 30 hours at a time with the people in the streets.

"My only motivation for making photography my career is to depict honesty," he mentioned.

He said that having a camera in streets of Iran is just like having a gun, a view that has its origins from the pessimistic view of photography by officials.

"Today even minor activity in Iran is captured by satellites so there is no need to prohibit photography. If we had been allowed to take photos then (during the Islamic Revolution) the political analysts could use them as historical documents," he added.

Comments like "Women with different covering and ideologies were present", "Men and Women pursue a single goal beside each other" have been written next to some of the photos.

Born in Tehran, Akbar Nazemi studied at the Vienna Art School and the Düsseldorf Academy of Art from 1974 to 1978.

His artwork has gone on display at over 25 National and International exhibitions. His depictions of "The Iranian Revolution", "The Iran-Iraq War" and "Architecture in Iran", have been acclaimed in Iran, Germany, United State of America and Canada.

... Payvand News - 02/01/10 ... --

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