Deutsch
English
https://vimeo.com/172566349 (von TIPI, merci!)
CURENTLY SOLD OUT!
"Six years ago, I was sitting in a reception room, next to my mother , holding our Shenasnamehs . My eyes began to flick from the picture of my mother to the picture of myself, and back again. What these pictures meant, of what they showed and what they didn’t show. My mother and I, for all our differences, were welded into one being in our photographs. (...)
I am Iranian. I was born in 1980, the same year as the Islamic Revolution. I learned how to wear my scarf when I was seven years old. I still remember putting it on for the first time, getting ready for my first day at school. It was me, my mother and a mirror. Two years later my Religious teacher stopped me in the corridor for letting my hair show. She told me to cover my hair completely. She said “When you die, Amak, you will go to hell and you will be hanged with your hair strand over a very big fire for all eternity because you didn’t hide it from the eyes of strangers in your lifetime
Six years ago, I was waiting in a reception room, holding the birth certificates of my mother and me. We looked similar in our ID photographs. That same day my fingerprint was fixed next to my image, and my mother’s fingerprint next to her image. Despite the outward similarity of the images the fingerprints were different; the scar I had on my finger became part of my identity next to my photograph. I decided this meant something, that our identities were entwined with these official identities, with these prints and these papers. In the following three years, I collected similar images and fingerprints from different women in Iran. Each was different from the other, and had a story to tell.” (© Amak MAHMOODIAN)
"In Iran, the Shenasnameh is a national identity document the size of a passport that includes personal details like name, place and date of birth, fingerprint, and information on one’s parents. After the age of 15, a photo of the owner is added (to be updated periodically throughout the bearer’s life), as well as additional pages for registering marriage, children, divorce, and death.
Around 2010, the Iranian photographer, filmmaker, and curator Amak MAHMOODIAN was waiting with her mother as they were due to update their photographs for their Shenasnamehs. For women, there are expectations for these photos of the Iranian self.
One must, of course, wear a headscarf, but it must also be one that covers her hair completely. One must not wear excessive makeup. And one must generally put on a neutral face (although I expect this latter point is so for men as well). If a woman does not follow these instructions, her photo may be rejected for the Shenasnameh." (publisher's note, © RBB)
CURENTLY SOLD OUT!
"Six years ago, I was sitting in a reception room, next to my mother , holding our Shenasnamehs . My eyes began to flick from the picture of my mother to the picture of myself, and back again. What these pictures meant, of what they showed and what they didn’t show. My mother and I, for all our differences, were welded into one being in our photographs. (...)
I am Iranian. I was born in 1980, the same year as the Islamic Revolution. I learned how to wear my scarf when I was seven years old. I still remember putting it on for the first time, getting ready for my first day at school. It was me, my mother and a mirror. Two years later my Religious teacher stopped me in the corridor for letting my hair show. She told me to cover my hair completely. She said “When you die, Amak, you will go to hell and you will be hanged with your hair strand over a very big fire for all eternity because you didn’t hide it from the eyes of strangers in your lifetime
Six years ago, I was waiting in a reception room, holding the birth certificates of my mother and me. We looked similar in our ID photographs. That same day my fingerprint was fixed next to my image, and my mother’s fingerprint next to her image. Despite the outward similarity of the images the fingerprints were different; the scar I had on my finger became part of my identity next to my photograph. I decided this meant something, that our identities were entwined with these official identities, with these prints and these papers. In the following three years, I collected similar images and fingerprints from different women in Iran. Each was different from the other, and had a story to tell.” (© Amak MAHMOODIAN)
"In Iran, the Shenasnameh is a national identity document the size of a passport that includes personal details like name, place and date of birth, fingerprint, and information on one’s parents. After the age of 15, a photo of the owner is added (to be updated periodically throughout the bearer’s life), as well as additional pages for registering marriage, children, divorce, and death.
Around 2010, the Iranian photographer, filmmaker, and curator Amak MAHMOODIAN was waiting with her mother as they were due to update their photographs for their Shenasnamehs. For women, there are expectations for these photos of the Iranian self.
One must, of course, wear a headscarf, but it must also be one that covers her hair completely. One must not wear excessive makeup. And one must generally put on a neutral face (although I expect this latter point is so for men as well). If a woman does not follow these instructions, her photo may be rejected for the Shenasnameh." (publisher's note, © RBB)
- Book design
- Alejandro ACIN
- Format
- Pb. in a bag, 10 x 13,5 cm., 120 pp. + 1 loose sheet, color ills., bilingual texts: English / Persian, Ltd. to 300 copies