The Iranian Revolution and its iconic images | Abbas Attar - Photographer (2/9)

The attack to the American Embassy in Tehran is the key event of the Iranian Revolution in 1979. The photo of Abbas synthesizes contradictions and hopes of Iranian people.
Abbas described himself as a photographer of the outside, he became never the other, he took photos, then he left. A born photographer, he had a remarquable ability to capture mankind and its contradiction. His work focuses on faith and fanaticism, particularly in Islam and Buddhism.
But Abbas' most famous photographs come from the Iranian Revolution in 1979. He covered the tumultuous events in his country. He knew there was something in the air, because there was too much tension and too much progress, so he wanted to do some in-depth work on Iran.
He captured the hostage crisis in Iran with the 1979 takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran.
Abbas observed the dynamics of his country, recounting every detail with a critical eye, as he did in South Africa to cover apartheid and the Vietnam War in the Vietcong, where few photojournalists covered the events. In retrospect, he decrisbed himself as a historian of the present and was his mission to show these pictures now to the world.
What he was looking for in each of his photos was the suspended moment, to give the feeling that the photo is not frozen but continues to live. The captured moment continues its action.

Chapters
▷ 00:00:00 - Introduction
▷ 00:03:26 - In a hindu temple in Paris
▷ 00:04:00 - On world religions
▷ 00:04:37 - On his work during the Iranian Revolution
▷ 00:06:00 - Pictures of the Shah and Khomeini in 1977
▷ 00:09:00 - On covering the war in Vietnam and the Viet Cong
▷ 00:12:00 - His photography that become an icon of Apartheid
▷ 00:12:25 - Back to the Iranian Revolution
▷ 00:21:05 - On his style (the "suspended moment")
▷ 00:22:30 - On his work in Mexico

Watch the complete series:    • The Story behind the Tiananmen Square "Tan...  

#iran #photography #history #iranprotests #teheran #tehran #islam #islamism #islamic

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Contact sheets are the first overview for the photographer of what he has captured on film. They give a unique and intimate view of the style, methods and thoughts of the artist.
Cartier-Bresson himself, founder of the Magnum Photo agency, was strongly opposing the disclosure of his contact sheets and yet the choice of that picture is the point of contact between the photographer's life, thoughts, philosophy and the subject he portrays.
What is the story behind the most famous iconic photos
from around the world? A unique and fascinating journey into the forbidden city of the contact sheets of the world renowned photographers from Magnum, the legendary agency founded in 1947.

Original title: Contact - Iranian Revolution by Abbas Attar
Music:    / @antoinemarsaud  
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