Portraits of Everyday Life in Iran
Despite rising geopolitical tensions, the lives of most Iranians remain ordinary.
Simone Tramonte
- Simone Tramonte01With the fortieth anniversary of the Iranian Revolution approaching, Italian photographer Simone Tramonte traveled through Iran last summer to capture images of ordinary life—from Tehran to the holy city of Qom, then across the Zagros Mountains to visit the nomadic Qashquai people.
- Simone Tramonte02In the years after Ayatollah Khomeini took power in 1979 and declared an Islamic Republic, the country became the United States’ central nemesis in the Middle East.
- Simone Tramonte03Recently, the country has been in the news again because of widespread street protests against the regime, raising the possibility of another revolution. Tramonte’s trip to Iran was his attempt to go behind the headlines.
- Simone Tramonte04“I wanted to tell the daily life of contemporary Iran, led by the new moderate president, Hassan Rouhani,” Tramonte says. “I’ve always been interested in the ‘closed countries,’ and having the opportunity to be there with the locals allows you to see things in a very different way.”
- Simone Tramonte05By traveling on a tourist visa, Tramonte was able to document the country without being monitored by regime officials. This freedom allowed him an extraordinary intimacy with the Iranian people.
- Simone Tramonte06Dancing in public in Iran is illegal, but men in Kashan circumvent the rule by dancing by themselves in the desert.
- Simone Tramonte07Tramonte noticed that many Iranians live a double life, bifurcated between “the official version of Iranian life promoted by the authorities and the reality of daily life for the Iranian youth who are struggling to find an identity in a rapidly changing and evolving world.”
- Simone Tramonte08Images of an Iranian skateboarder, children in shopping carts, or a young couple taking a selfie show ordinary life proceeding in defiance of the geopolitical tensions that dominate CNN and Fox News.
- Simone Tramonte09The aspiration to live a normal life, in a normal country, is what is fueling the protests we’re seeing today, Tramonte says. “In Iran there is a great desire of the people to be free. They want to express themselves, and are struggling to find an identity without losing their historical memory.”
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