TEHRAN -- The Iranian photographer Bahman Jalali (1945-2010) was posthumously honored by the Sprengel Museum in Hannover with the Stiftung Niedersachsen’s Spectrum International Award for Photography during a ceremony on Sunday.

Jalali’s award was accepted by the artist’s widow, Rana Javadi, and his photos went on display in an exhibition at the museum.
A total of 550 photos by Jalali will go on display for the first time during a showcase which will run from May 21 to August 21.
Photos are selected from different photo collections by him like “war”, “Islamic Revolution”, “Bushehr” and “Daily Life”. Some of them were previously exhibited at the Barcelona’s Fundacio Antoni Tapies in December 2007.
The museum’s experts and award jury members selected 300 photographs and his widow Javadi selected another 110. The rest of the photos belong to “War” and “Islamic Revolution” collections.
The museum has published Jalali’s collections “War”, “Islamic Revolution” and “Image of Imagination” with notes by Ali Behdad, Hamid Dabashi and Dariush Shayegan which was unveiled at the ceremony.
Rana Javadi, and the journalist Peter von Becker will introduce Jalali’s artworks during a meeting on June 16.
The previous winners of the Spectrum International Prize for Photography were: Robert Adams, Thomas Struth, John Baldessari, Sophie Calle, Martha Rosler and Helen Levitt.
The members of this year’s jury were Geoffrey Batchen (New York, by correspondence), Frits Gierstberg (Rotterdam), Christine Frisinghelli (Graz), Inka Schube (Hanover) and Joachim Werren (Hanover).
This prize is designed to stress the significance of photography as an artistic medium, ranking it on a level with the other fine arts. It also draws attention to the role of the Sprengel Museum Hannover, which is one of the few important museums in Germany to devote an entire department to the collection and study of photography. The prize was created with the photographic tradition of the Sprengel Museum’s Spectrum Gallery (1972-1992) in mind.
Photo: Bahman Jalali in an undated photo