Sevruguin’s photographs have had a profound and lasting legacy, one that continues to influence the work of contemporary Iranian artists. Yassaman Ameri’s series The Inheritance is a testament to the richness of Qajar photography and its lasting influence. The Inheritance is based on a document Ameri received from her mother. The document features 36 stamp-sized photographs of women taken during the late Qajar era in Iran by an unknown photographer. Using computer imaging technology, Ameri places these women in luscious spaces borrowed from another rich heritage, that of Qajar paintings. In so doing, she invites the viewer to consider who these women may have been and the world in which they may have lived. She uses her rich heritage from a century ago to express narratives that are simultaneously contemporary, personal, and universal. Her work reflects on the constructed nature of history and the absence of women’s stories within that construct. Exhibited here are select pieces from the series.
Mahdi Ehsaei, an Iranian-German photographer, documents the African community living in southern Iran in a manner that explicitly references the work of Sevruguin. As these examples demonstrate, the poses of figures and the deeply personal scenes of members of the community in Ehsaei’s work echo many of Sevruguin’s pictures.
Yassaman Ameri, from the series The Inheritance, 2018, Inkjet print on rag archival paper,
Left to right, nos. 23, 19, 26
Yassaman Ameri, from the series The Inheritance, 2018, Inkjet print on rag archival paper,
Clockwise from beginning top left, nos. 30, 36, 33, 16
Mahdi Ehsaei, from Afro-Iran, 2015
Left: Ghasem – Gurband, Minab County, Hormozgan Province, Iran, 2014
Right: Ameneh – Khaje-Ata District, Bandar Abbas, Hormozgan Province, Iran, 2014
