@10x10photobooks

‌‌‌‌ Hello from Tehran, I am Amirhossein Kardouni @amirvank from @dastrasphotobooks. I hope you have enjoyed the books that have been introduced through past 7 days. Showcasing a number of photobooks by Iranian photographers and writing a little about them for @10x10photobooks has been a great honor for me. I believe that following years will be exciting years for photobooks in Iran. ‌‌‌‌‌ The last book I want to introduce here is a by a photography student, Kavian Esmaili (b.1997) @kaysnotsocommon titled “No Miracles Here”. ‌‌ The book shows images that are going to be a surprise for both the previous generations and those who know Iran only through media. Kavian and his friends has made a community whose lifestyle and pastime are deviant comparing to the normal ethics of the society. Pastime and lifestyle that might face legal action. So we have to know that such lifestyle in Iran necessitates an amount of courage, creativity and support from its community members. ‌‌ But, it is not the outrageous and distinctive content of the book that distinguish it from others. In fact, around the year 2005 to 2015, taking photos of the parties and lifestyles of Iranian younger generation turned into a cliché and a short cut for photojournalists to receive international attention. But the importance of these images lies in their visual characteristics and their correspondence with the content of these photos: Sharp flash lights, bright colors, instinctive and decentralized compositions and out of focus images thoroughly reflect their fear, courage, seize the day spirit, uncertainty and drug consumption and the closeness of the photographer with the subjects and blurred foregrounds, give us a sense of being part of them. These are the characteristics that have changed the book into a direct, confessional and penetrating work. In the end it should be noted that unlike the title of the book which has bleak connotations, the book is the harbinger of a more courageous and assertive generation, or at least I would like to think so. More on comments! ‌‌‌‌‌

Hello everyone, this is @amirvank from @dastrasphotobooks. Today’s book is titled “Phantasma” by a young photographer, Hedieh Ahmadi. So far among the photographers that have been introduced here, Hedieh is exclusively considered book photographer. She is also one of the few photobook designers currently working in Iran and runs a space called “Bazar” @bazarartbookfair which deals with artist's books. ‌‌‌ In her photography, Hedieh acts freely and instinctively. In “Phantasma” she has documented a trip to the southern parts of Iran with a number of her friends. Her photos are mysterious and dreamlike, resembling the culture of southern Iran as the birthplace of various local myths. This book ,In terms of Lesly A. Martin, is the baroque form book; The images of the book open in a background of another image, a meaningful design that offers the same dreamlike effect that can also be found in the photos. ‌‌ The Persian title of the book “Hava’ie” refers to a myth in southern Iran. It is a common belief among some seaside dwellers who believe that there are magical and ominous winds that can possess a human soul. If someone is possessed by these winds, he or she would be called Hava’ie. ‌‌ We, the viewers, might also be looking at the photos from the point of view of a Hava’ie as well! ‌‌ What distinguishes Hedieh Ahmadi’s work from many others working in this geography is her avoidance of the exoticism readily present in such beliefs and places. She makes use of such contexts only as a layer of meaning present among many others. ‌‌ The book is self-published in 2018 in edition of 150.

Hello everyone, Hope you have great sunday 💫 This is Amirhossein Kardouni @amirvank from @dastrasphotobooks taking over 10x10 photobooks. ‌‌ Today’s book is by an amazing emerging Iranian photographer: "Half-light" by Shahrzad Darafsheh @shindal__ ‌‌‌‌‌ “Half-light” is a lyrical photographic rendition of the artist’s fight against cancer. Contrary to expectations, few photos of the photographer herself, her medical condition and of the procedures she has taken, are available in the book. Instead, what we see are dreamlike images of objects and landscapes. For instance, a dark route with remote rows of light, an abandoned interior of a building with decorative moldings and a cupid on the wall, a mountain covered with silver dust, a curled strand of thread against a background of crimson sunset, a light spot on a wall, and a heavily clouded sky looking from above as if angels are witnessing them! ‌‌ ‌Have you noticed that when you are patient or something terrible has happened to you, suddenly the meaning of everything changes for you? This book provokes the same thoughts in you, but the change of meanings, for Shahrzad, leads her to see a charm in the ordinary sights and things. ‌‌ The book is both in Farsi and English, starting with a poem from Hakim Omar Khayyam - who is known for the ideas of Impermanence of life, carpe diem and the importance of quest for the meaning of life. If you start it from right to left (Persian language uses right-to-left script) the images move from darkness to light, and from left to right it is vice versa. Clearly, the book is a metaphor for inner feelings of the photographer and offers various renditions of her life. ‌‌ ‌‌Moreover, the book offers an exceptional tactile experience. the cover has the color and feels like human skin. The papers are cream white and the images are divided by a semi-transparent paper sheet from one another. This is how the photographer adds an element of ambiguity and doubt to everything, as it is implied in the title of the book as well. The book is published by @gnomicbook in 2018 in edition of 300.

‌‌‌ ‌Hello, I hope this message finds you well. This is Amirhossein Kardouni @amirvank From @dastrasphotobooks taking over the feed this week. ‌‌‌ Today, I would like to introduce “Tehran Undated/Displaced” by Mehran Mohajer, another Influential Iranian photographer, linguist, art critic and university lecturer. ‌‌‌ The book includes three series from which I intend to discuss “Tehran: Undated” series. In this series, the artist has taken photographs of Tehran using pinhole camera. From the very beginning, the decision to use pinhole camera to capture scenes from a highly populated city seems paradoxical and against the conventions of street photography. Due to the long exposure required for pinhole photography, there are no human subjects in these images. This has made the lively and highly populated city of Tehran look almost apocalyptic. The question is; what has made the artist choose pinhole camera and remove all human subjects from his images in the middle of a crowded metropolis? ‌‌‌ Mehran Mohajer’s photography often targets the questions of time, language and interplay between photography and different systems of signs, colored with historical and socio-political implications. Therefore, we can see the decision of using pinhole camera for urban photography (specifically in twenty first century), as an encounter between two incongruous time eras as well as two systems, connecting the present to the past, we are situated in a retro-present state. On the other side, “Tehran: Outdated” series was exhibited at a significant point in time, right after the 2009 Iranian presidential election (the book was published later, ten years after the exhibition). From this perspective, the work represents the collective consciousness of a citizens who experienced the repressions of the protests against electoral fraud and its controversial results. ‌‌ Although, in my view, the series is more aesthetically effective once it is perceived on the wall, we are happy to have it as a book. It was the only way we could save and preserve the aforementioned collective emotions, a very significant feature one can only find in photobooks! ‌‌ published in 2014 by @manoosh.pub.

‌‌ Hello friends, this is @amirvank from @dastrasphotobooks and hope you have good weekend 💫 Today we look at Farshid Azarang’s book, “Book of Amnesia”. Azarang is an author, lecturer and photographer who has contributed a great deal through his instructions, translations and publications. ‌‌ The “Book of Amnesia” is a photobook comprised of pictures and writing. It is very personal, with references to family, love, photography and death. The photos are chosen from the author’s family album plus photos taken by the author himself. The scripts are both the work of the artist himself and quotations from other authors. Although the combination of picture and text is somewhat challenging in general, the combination in this book sits well and complimentary. ‌‌‌‌ What I enjoy most about this book is the adventurous selection of pictures and engaging and sometimes self-confessional notes (talking about his mother’s death, killing of pool’s fishes, a voyeuristic look at the neighbor’s wife and etc.) that leads to a philosophical monologue about life. The sequence of writings and the photos are laid out in a manner that they direct and even challenge your thoughts. Here is some notes from the book: Slide 4: “I never wanted to live like fools” Don Corleone Slide 5: “A guru asked his disciples to put their thumb and index finger together. Which finger is touching the other? Both simultaneously and alternately? Are there any ambivalent feelings? Our mind cannot distinguish between the fact that it is simultaneously going through an experience and making the experience take place. Photos are the result of the same connection. They involve the same ambiguous feeling, that in the other world as well as this one, we are connected to each other. We are simultaneously experiencing and being experienced. The photographic ecstasy (or maybe the ecstasy of art in general) is giving oneself to the experience of the world. This is where one is engaged with existence. In this manner, the subject is not an object but the world itself. Here, the world is the subject. I start with my experience of the world to get to the world’s experience of me.” ‌‌ more on comments!

Hello everyone, hope you are well and healthy, this is Amirhossein @amirvank from @dastrasphotobooks and it's 02:08 AM in Tehran. Today’s book is titled “If You Don’t See Me” by Shahriar Tavakoli @shahriartavakoli . He is a photographer and, in my view, an exceptional photography writer. First of all, Image of night in photography, although some types of it has become cliché, has always been mysterious and pleasing just like images of Tavakoli. Second, We know that there is a tradition of night photography and a kind of dialogue between photographers, so as soon as we see a picture of a house or a road at night we cannot stop to remember Brassai, Todd Hido or Dayanita Singh. Shahriar Tavakoli’s photobook is another piece in this tradition which added an Iranian undertone to it. I think one should look at Tavakoli’s work on their own and let imagination take them where it desires. In introduction he said: “I like it to be night when I enter a city. You feel less foreign. The night and city look different in the absence of people, everyday routine takes a form free from racial and geographical indicators. People and their stories lurk back into their homes, and the night’s story has just begun. No matter what city you’re in, the roads, the trees, the windows, the alleys, and the light poles are old friends. It only needs to be night time, for them to come out and bring meaning from the pitch black background that has taken over in every direction”. "If You Don't See Me" published in 2005 by @nazarartpublication

‌‌‌‌‌‌ ‌‌ 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 ‌‌

‌‌ Hello everyone, this is Amirhossein @amirvank from @dastrasphotobooks . Hope you are well and it's great to be here to talk about photobooks. for the first day I started with the work of one of the most influential Iranian photographers, Bahman Jalali (1944 -2010) - Days of blood, Days of fire: A Visual Reportage of Iran's Islamic Revolution's Victory. Jalali has consistently made way for the development and growth of Iranian photographers through writing, publishing, instructing and exhibiting. The book is about protests to Mohammadreza Pahlavi's (Shah) regime during the last two months leading to the 1979 revolution. The book has six chapters. Each chapter examines one phase of the revolution: protests, violence during protests, people’s happiness over the progress of the movement, return of the revolution leader, and normalization of living standards post-revolution. This photobook is considered to be in accordance with the government's policies. Although the content (better to say introduction text) reflected in the book is somehow biased, but what intrigues me most about the book is the clever and meaningful layout of the book: it is published with slogans alongside the photos as if the pictures have voice. You can almost hear the streets. This provides a totally different experience of the photos. Also the book is published in high contrast which adds to the theatrical qualities of the book even more. ‌‌ Important fact about the book is that, all the photos are not taken by Jalali himself, but rather it is a collective effort. It includes works from Rana Javadi (his wife), Hadi Jarrahi, Mahmoud Mohammadi, and Behrooz Shahidi. ‌‌ Days of Blood, Days of Fire was published in 1979 by Zamineh, the only independent publishing house at that time in Tehran.

📕📘📗 Welcome our next guest! Amirhossein Kardouni @amirvank is a photographer, photography instructor and art writer/translator currently living and working in Tehran, Iran. He holds an MA in photography from the University of Tehran. In his photography projects he is dealing with micro-narratives, raised from his personal life, with the focus on the meaning of place and belonging. In 2021 he founded the Dastras Photobook Platform @dastrasphotobooks to encourage dialogue about the medium through creating a library of contemporary photobooks, talk sessions and workshops. He believes that there is great and almost hidden energy in Iranian photography scene that only photobook, due to their democratic quality and mobility, can release. For the next 6 days he will introduce a selection of his best-liked Iranian photobooks including works of photographers from different generations who have spent most of their careers in Iran. The selection moves chronologically from the established photographers to the emergings. The photobooks to be shared are available in the Dastras archive and another space called Bāygān (you can reach them by Baaygaan.com). Follow along! 📸 Amin Yousefi @aminyosefi

📚📚📚 Thank you all who made it to the Reading Rooms for “What They Saw: Historical Photobooks by Women" 🖐🖐🏿🖐🏽. All the books are in the 🦁📚 NYPL collection and remain available (upon request) to the public. We are also grateful to our colleagues and friends at the NYPL's Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs for generously hosting the Reading Rooms. And of course, a huge thank you to all presenters at spotlight talks. 💌 💡Check out the 10x10 website for upcoming reading rooms and other events! @nyplart #WTS #10x10photobooks

A selection of rare photobooks accessible for viewing in the Prints & Photographs Study Room. Free and open to the public (registration is required, 💌 [email protected] with subject heading “What They Saw”). 📚📚📚📚 📘 Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions, Anna Atkins (1843-1853) 📔 Some Disordered Interior Geometries, Francesca Woodman (1981) 📒 Mother Goos of ‘93, Mary A. Bartlett (1893) 📕 Tiborc, Kata Kalman (1937) 📕 Le Coeur de Pic (The Heart of Spades), Claude Cahun (1937) 📙 What’s Happening with Momma? Clarissa Sligh (1988)

✨The 10x10 Reading Room is now open✨ Stop by for a 🖐🖐🏽🖐🏿 hands-on experience and to explore photobooks made by women! 📸📚 ⠀ In collaboration with 10x10 Photobooks, NYPL's Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs is hosting Reading Rooms for “What They Saw: Historical Photobooks by Women.” The Reading Rooms include two spaces to browse and view 200 photobooks, published between 1843 and 1999. ⠀ The Reading Room is open 19-21 May in the Center for Research in the Humanities on the 2nd floor of the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building.