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Indepth Arts News:
"The Days of Their Lives: Photographs by Seifollah Samadian"
2008-08-19 until 2008-09-12
Xerxes Fine Arts
London, ,
UK United Kingdom
A series of extraordinary images documenting the lives of ordinary Iranians
goes on show at Xerxes Fine Arts from August 19 through September 12, 2008. Seifollah Samadian’s The Days of Their Lives explores the everyday existence of the Iranian populace, photographed as they participate in organised events and parades. At once haunting and provocative, the series of eighteen images reveals another face of Iran and offers a subtle socio-economic commentary on a world seldom seen by
outsiders. Highly-regarded internationally as a cinematographer and art director as well as a photographer, who has worked
with directors such as Martin Scorsese and Abbas Kiarostami, Samadian came to the forefront of critical attention in
the wave of Iranian photography that gained momentum in the arts scene following the end of the Iran-Iraq war. In
the drive to document events that followed, Samadian became Professor of Photojournalism at the University of
Tehran and is today Publisher and Editor-in-chief of the Iranian cultural magazine, Tassvir.
Samadian is renowned for his ability to express the lives of others through his sensitive and articulate use of film.
“He knows how to enter a space” says Kiarostami about his former cameraman. “This gentleman can't look at
anything without a camera and when he turns off the camera its like his eyelids are closed”.
Seifollah Samadian was born in Tehran in 1954. His achievements include
the widely-acclaimed documentary film The White Station, and ABC Africa
made with Abbas Kiarostami.
His photography has been widely shown in international exhibitions and
museums including the Istanbul and Sharjah biennials, World Press Photo
the Barbican, the V&A museum and the Museum of Contemporary Art,
Vienna.
Samadian is Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of the Iranian arts magazine,
Tassvir.
Established in 2008, Xerxes Fine Arts is the only gallery outside of the
Persian Gulf which acts as a primary dealer for artists of note from Iran
and the Middle East. With a strong focus on contemporary visual arts,
and a mission to nurture and promote young artists from the region, the
gallery represents a gateway, bringing to London and the wider world an
exciting new generation of talented artists from Iran and the Middle East.
Xerxes’s artists are shown in China by Contrasts Gallery.
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