@10x10photobooks

‌‌‌‌‌‌ ‌‌ Hello from Tehran 👋 This is Amirhossein Kardouni @amirvank from @dastrasphotobooks and today I am introducing another photobook among my favorites titled “Mountain Sites” by Yahya Dehghanpour. ‌‌ Like Jalali, Yahya Dehghanpour is also another influential contemporary Iranian photographer. Back in the Nineties, photography in Iran was still heavily impacted by the revolution and the Iran-Iraq war. Most of what has been taught and showed can be summarized by the ‘concerned photography’. ‌‌Yahya turned his attention to artistic photography and encouraged his students to look for more democratic views. ‌‌‌‌ His Mountain Sites which was mostly photographed during the war, depicts the resort areas in outskirts of Northern Tehran with fresh eyes. You can simply become in love with the colors of the photos, its composition, abstraction of objects or the comedic effect of pictures. The photos are also have a pleasant, friendly and calm atmosphere. But when we see them today there is more to grasp. The most attractive photos of the book are that of the amateurish and childish drawings of business owners used on the walls to advertise their services. It was like walking into a place where being ordinary was welcomed! For us, I think, the book remind us of a more hopeful time in our lives (consider postwar years too). Moreover, comparing the previous outlook of resorts to their current profile, reveals a great shift in the taste of popular culture and leisure consumption. The previous attempts for beautification/decoration, despite their notable naivety, were authentic in nature, while their contemporary counterparts are fake attempts for modernization marked by a lack of taste.. Mountain Sites published in 1995 by Art and Cultural Organization of theTehran Municipality ‌‌