Nurse, Vaccination Clinic (Iran)

Nurse, Vaccination Clinic Tehran, Iran. 2006. Medium format. From the series Iran, Revisited

Iran's current political climate combined with western media's obsessive attraction to images of war and conflict has created an absence of real portraits of Iranians who work hard to improve their communities. In Iran Revisited, I wanted to promote a greater understanding of my country of origin and treat the subjects as individuals rather than archetypes. It is important to me to show the complex relationships that lay beneath the surface of the image. I deliberately refuse to romanticize my culture, and try to strip away the prevailing imagery of The Other - the desert, the veiled woman. Here, the complexity of Iranian society refuses to be reduced to the question of hijab, and instead must be understood in terms of the competing forces of tradition and change.