Kaveh Golestan

Kaveh Golestan

Tate Modern, London

20th April 2018

Kaveh Golestan produced this black and white photography series of portraits between 1975 and 1977. The series documents sex workers from the former light district, Iran. It was here, Golestan witnessed “the social, financial, hygienic, behavioural and psychological problem that exist in everyday society... magnified.”

Golestan’s outrageous images show the true narrative of these women in a documentary style. The image above, for me, strikes me with a very strong narrative; a moment frozen in time. It is unclear to what exactly is happening in the image but it still speaks an intense and dramatic story.

According to the Tate website:

“During the Iranian revolution of 1979 Shahr-e No was deliberately set alight. The authorities made no attempt to put out the fire and there are no records of how many women died. Under the newly formed Islamic Republic, the area was demolished in an act of cultural cleansing’ and today bears no reference to its past. Golestan’s images are among the last known records of the women of Shahr-e No.”

This fact only adds to the intimacy and true nature of the narratives found in the work.