This photograph documents the effects of urban development on Navab, an old neighborhood in the southwest of the central section of the megalopolis known as Tehran. The partially gutted and exposed ruin of a building is imaginatively brought back to life through the digital addition of ghost-like images on the stairway and in the shower. It is one of a series of views of demolished structures in Navab, the result of a failed municipal renovation project, that convey in a highly original manner the sense of loss, isolation, and nostalgia that inhabits much of contemporary Iranian art.

Naghmeh Ghassemlou has shown her photographs extensively in Iran, where she is well represented in private collections, but was largely unknown outside the country until recently. Her work, which often subtly evokes a society in decline, is invariably marked by a superb sense of composition and a perfect balance of color and form that tempers some of the melancholy mood of her photographs.