Armed with their cameras, Reza and Jalali have captured some of the most iconic images in their country’s modern history. Specifically, the two photographers captured the 1979 demonstrations that turned Iran from a monarchy into an Islamic republic.

Bahman Jalali, a photographer and photography professor who lives and works in Tehran, is best known for his photographs of the Iranian revolution and the Iran-Iraq war. Today, his work is more artistic than documentary.

Unlike Jalali, Reza fled his homeland in 1981 and continued photographing conflicts across the world. He currently lives in Paris with his family.

Their lives may be different but their opinions of modern Iranian photography are similar. In a country where the reality of censorship makes freedom of expression a constant battle, photography still has a key role to play, as evidenced by the recent post-election riots.

FRANCE 24: Were you working inside Iran during the recent demonstration? In your opinion, what do you make of the photos that came out during the protest?

Bahman Jalali: I was in Iran but I didn’t take any pictures. Something major happened during those days: young people used the new technologies to communicate with the world, using their mobile phones to send photos of the protests, or posting images on Internet. Any young Iranian who had a mobile phone could suddenly do the job of a professional photographer. We have already witnessed this scenario in China, Burma (Myanmar), and Gaza, but it took on a whole new dimension during the Tehran riots.

FRANCE 24: Did they arrest photographers?

Reza: Walking in the streets with a camera in your hand makes you a criminal in Iran. Of course, some photographers have been arrested. One of them, who was arrested at the start of the upheaval, said he had been beaten and raped. The worrying issue in Iran is not just the torture of prisoners, but the systematic rape in jail. It is the true face of this regime.

FRANCE 24: How do you see Iran’s photography evolving over time?

Bahman Jalali: Iranian photography is evolving in step with the political events taking place there. During the 1979 revolution, when all eyes were on Iran, many of our photos were published in the international press. It was an important step in our photographic history. When the Iran-Iraq war began, many photographers were inspired by the war and the lives of ordinary Iranians. After this came a period of censorship, and artistic photography started to emerge.

FRANCE 24: How do you see photography shaping or influencing Iranian society?

Reza: Images have always been important in Iranian history, and so is photography. Photography played an important role in the Iranian revolution thirty years ago. Suddenly we were seeing pictures of the revolution all around the world. Something similar happened during the recent protests. The whole world knows the face of Neda. The images of her dying on the street have become a bit of a symbol of repression in Iran. (The death of Neda Agha-Soltan, a young Iranian woman, drew international attention after she was shot during the post-election protests. Her death was captured on video by bystanders and circulated on the Internet.)

FRANCE 24: How does one continue to work with the censorship that exists in Iran?

Bahman Jalali: In Iran, where I live, taking a photo is a dangerous act. The regime sees photography as a way for opponents of the regime to reveal what they want to hide. There are two stages in the act of taking a picture: first, you take the picture, and then you publish it. Photographers must be able to perform both tasks. Two of my books have been censored. The first one was a book on the Iranian revolution, which was published twice, but has since then been denied permission to be reprinted. It was also the case with my second one, the Iran-Iraq war. And this is the reason I decided to change the style of my work, less political, more esthetic, on topics like Iranian architecture or Iranians’ daily life. I haven’t had problems with censorship since.
 

By Ségolène ALLEMANDOU / Watcharaporn TAITHONGCHAI Irainian photographer Reza talks about the ways in which photography has evolved since the Iranian Revolution.