Sadegh Tirafkan was one of Iran's best known contemporary artists and his art was shaped in part by the circumstances of his early life. Born in Iraq and forcibly repatriated to Iran in 1971, as a teenager Tirafkan joined the bassiji or youth militia and fought in the war against Iraq; he was one of the boys sent into battle with a plastic key to Paradise around his neck and little else. Unlike most of his young comrades he survived the war and went on to study photography at the University of Fine Arts, Tehran. Since the late 1980s, he has participated in numerous solo exhibitions and international group shows. Through his photographs, videos, and wire sculptures, Tirafkan, like other Iranian artists of his generation, captures a society caught between the present and the past. Perhaps because Tirafkan learned about loss at an early age, his work often emphasizes suffering and isolation rather than political commentary. This is especially true of his 2002 series ‘Secret of Words.’ Here, his subjects project the stories of their lives through their faces, which they allow us, the viewers, to read. The interrelationship between their physically expressed stories and unspoken words is revealed through the letters behind the figures or superimposed on top of them. The repetitive letters are meant to suggest something akin to our A, B, Cs.