One of the most beautiful and useful gifts of the internet is the ability to deflate propaganda and re-humanize our so-called enemies by offering a glimpse of The Other, in this case, the people of Tehran. These are the people, these laughing, walking, sleeping, eating, breathing, loving and beloved people who would be “civilian casualties” or “collateral damage” were we to start lobbing missiles that way in the name of “stabilizing the Middle East” or “protecting our allies.”
Remember McCain?
One great window on this part of the world is the Flickr photostream and website of street photographer Kamyar Adl.
From his site:
Kamyar says, ‘I became obsessed with 35mm cameras when I was a teenager after playing with my Brothers Nikon EL2 and its 50mm 1:1.4 lens.’ Some years later when his brother left Iran for LA, Kamyar and the poor ownerless Nikon became inseparable. After finishing school Kamyar spent a short while at Azad University studying photography but he soon left to do his military service in some desert near the Iran Iraq border.
Kamyar never went back to university but he did some photography jobs here and there one of which being taking photos of old doors and windows in downtown Tehran for a famous Iranian architect.
Then at the age of twenty five ‘I got married to the love of my life Shirin and moved to England’ says Kamyar (at this point Shirin has a very big grin on her face and misty eyes. She thinks about making Kamyar’s favourite dinner for him, Khoreshteh Bademjoon)
With the ease of a native but the distance of an emigrant, Kamyar documents the little moments of everyday Iranian life. Go take a tour and see with his eyes.
