- Title
- Untitled from the Qajar Series
- Date Made
- 1998
- Medium
- Gelatin-silver bromide print
- Dimensions
- Image: 9 9/16 x 6 7/16 in. (24.29 x 16.35 cm); Sheet: 9 15/16 x 7 15/16 in. (25.24 x 20.16 cm)
- Accession Number
- M.2008.35.27
- Collecting Area
- Art of the Middle East: Contemporary
- Curatorial Notes
Inspired by the studio portraiture of the late nineteenth century, Shadi Ghadirian re-created the earlier settings in a set of thirty-three photographs known as the Qajar series. She employed painted backdrops and dressed her models in vintage clothes to emulate the fashion of the day—headscarves and short skirts worn over baggy trousers, and thick, black eyebrows. She added modern-day elements, such as a pair of sunglasses (M.2008.35.1), a Pepsi can (M.2008.35.9), and a single-lens reflex camera (M.2008.35.14) to create ironic imagery that reflects the tension between tradition and modernity in Iranian society.
- Selected Bibliography
- Issa, Rose, ed. Shadi Ghadirian: Iranian Photographer. London: Saqi Books, 2008.
- Komaroff, Linda. In the Fields of Empty Days: The Intersection of Past and Present in Iranian Art. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Munich; New York: DelMonico Books-Prestel, 2018.
