TEHRAN – A vast selection of images by different photojournalists taken at historic moments of the 1979 Islamic Revolution will be showcased in an exhibition at the Art Bureau in Tehran.

Opening on Tuesday at the Khaneh Gallery of the bureau, the exhibition entitled “44 Years” will be organized to celebrate the 44th anniversary of the revolution.

The collection contains 83 photos by ten photojournalists, seven of which were working for the Sipa Agency, a French photo agency based in Paris.

Some of the pictures depict scenes in the daily life of Imam Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic, while in exile in Neauphle-le-Chateau near Paris.      

The exhibition will also show rare moments from the final days of the revolution.

One of the photos was taken by Qorban Khalili. The picture shows a member of the security force aiming at a protester who is a short distance away. 

Kayhan, a major daily based in Tehran, published the photo was the caption, “Soldier, don’t shoot”, which later became a title for the striking photo.  

Fifteen photographs by Khalili have been selected to be hung at the exhibition, which will run until February 22.

Works by Iranian photographer Qasem Hajmohammadi and the renowned French photojournalist Michel Setboun will be showcased.

Setboun’s photos of the revolution have been put on display at solo exhibits in Iran during different editions of the Ten-Day Dawn Celebration, which is organized by the Iranian government annually to mark the anniversary of the revolution.

The latest one entitled “Around Enqelab (Revolution) Street” was held online during the COVID-19 pandemic by the Imam Cultural Center in Tehran in 2020.

Iran’s Association of Revolution and Sacred Defense Photographers published a large collection of his photos in the book “The Days of the Revolution” in 2016.

Setboun was also honored by several Iranian organizations for his photos of the revolution and the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war, which is known as the Sacred Defense in Iran.

The 3rd Fajr International Festival of Visual Arts awarded him a lifetime achievement prize in 2011. 

He has previously said that the revolution gave him the opportunity to become a true professional photojournalist.

About what attracted him to the revolution, he has said, “For the French people, ‘revolution’ is a special word; for me, Iran was a kind of a replay of the events in France in 1968; the people were fighting for the end of dictatorship.”

Photo: A photo by French photojournalist Michel Setboun.

MMS/YAW