Janine Wiedel
 
 
 
“In 1976, a publisher commissioned me to write and photograph an educational book about Iran for children. The photographs used were mainly in colour and related to its themes. Only in recent months have I revisited my black-and-white negatives.
 
 
 
Iran was then in the final years of Mohammad Reza Shah's rule, a Western-oriented secular dictatorship brought to power through a British- and American-backed coup. Areas of cultural freedom existed alongside brutal repression. Political opposition was swiftly crushed. Shops, businesses or people failing to display the Shah's image prominently could be shut down or disappear overnight. Rapid state-led industrialisation and land reform had exacerbated social and economic divisions.
 
 
 
Two years later, in 1978, the upheaval of the Iranian Revolution began, with mass strikes and demonstrations ultimately ending the Shah's regime. By 1979, he was in exile and Ayatollah Khomeini had come to power. My book appeared, but it already belonged to another historical era.”