Kamran Ashtary

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)…