In the 30 years after the Islamic Revolution in Iran, art photography, as with all other spheres of the arts, has undergone many changes. One of the most remarkable of these developments has been the growth of this art in provincial towns and cities. Until a few years ago, this was almost the exclusive domain of Tehran photographers. But in the last decade provincial photographers have succeeded in competing with, and in some cases, surpassing their counterparts in the capital.

A vivid example is the Qazvin Photography Group, who recently mounted an exhibition of their work at the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London. Different phases of the thirty years of Iran’s recent history, from the eight-year Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s to the relative liberalism of the 1997-2005 period, and on until the present time, were represented at this exhibition and the related conference.

There was some debate as to the extent to which the various restrictions put on photographers over these years have stimulated greater levels of creativity. Most agreed, however, that the field has flourished during this time, manifested both in the quality as well as in the variety of the work created.

We can see examples of the work of the Qazvin Photography Group in this multimedia report, and hear from the various artists involved in the London exhibition.

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