Enghelab Street: A Revolution through Books: Iran 1979-1983

One of Time Magazine’s best photo book of 2019

Enghelab Street, or Revolution Street, is located in the center of the Iranian capital Tehran–a main artery in the city’s cultural life with a host of bookshops. This book presents a variety of rarely seen photographic and propaganda books collected by Iranian-born, Paris-based artist Hannah Darabi (born 1981), drawing on works published between 1979 and 1983–years corresponding to the short period when freedom of speech prevailed at the end of the Shah’s regime and the beginning of the Islamic government.

Darabi takes us to the heart of an intense artistic and cultural period in Iranian history in a visual essay accompanied by a critical essay by Chowra Makaremi. With its revelatory landscape of publications, Enghelab Street: Iran 1979-1983 gives us the opportunity to look at rare printed matter for the first time.