On display
Image of Gallery in South Kensington

Parties

Photograph
2005 (photographed)
Artist/Maker
Ghasemi, Amirali (photographer)
Place of origin
Iran (photographed)

Amirali Ghasemi lives and works in Tehran, where he trained as a graphic designer. The series Parties shows young Iranians socialising in private homes, their faces and other exposed flesh blocked out to protect their identities and also to call attention to the subversive nature of their actions under the current regime. Ghasemi states that depending on their contexts, his works 'are interpreted very differently and associated with subjects such as censorship, women's rights, the hijab, and Islam'.

Object details

Category
Photographs
Object type
Photograph
TitleParties (series title)
Materials and techniques
Digital c-type print
Photographic Paper
C-Type Colour Photography
Digital Imaging
Photography
Brief description
Photograph, from the series 'Parties', digital c-type print, by Amirali Ghasemi, Iran, 2005
Physical description
A colour photograph depicting people dancing; their faces and limbs are devoid of detail, the shapes blocked out in white.
Dimensions
  • Print height: 55.2cm
  • Print width: 81.6cm
  • Frame height: 56.1cm (Note: Measurement of object when framed)
  • Frame width: 81.6cm (Note: Measurement of object when framed - frame does not exceed width of print)
  • Height of grid height: 500cm (Note: Size of grid when all 18 photographs in the series are displayed together)
  • Width of grid width: 784cm (Note: Size of grid when all 18 photographs in the series are displayed together)
Copy number
2 of 5
Marks and inscriptions
Signed 2/5 2006 (Ink, lower right verso)
Gallery label
Parties captures young Iranians dancing and socialising in the safety of their homes. Taken during President Khatami’s reformist regime (1997–2005), Ghasemi blocks out faces and exposed flesh in the pictures to protect the identities of the individuals at these unsanctioned private events. In this series, Ghasemi challenges the widely disseminated images of political suppression in his hometown Tehran that dominate western media, and favours images of energy and excitement at lively house parties.
(September 2012)
Ghasemi alters what look like ordinary, spontaneous snapshots by blocking out exposed areas of flesh. By pre-emptively censoring his own images, he protects the identity of individuals photographed at unsanctioned private parties. The work evokes the censorship of imported magazines in Iran, where skirts are lengthened and women’s bodies are covered with strokes of black marker.

(Marta Weiss)
Credit line
Art Fund Collection of Middle Eastern Photography at the V&A and the British Museum
Subjects depicted
Dancers
Parties
Place depicted
Iran
Summary
Amirali Ghasemi lives and works in Tehran, where he trained as a graphic designer. The series Parties shows young Iranians socialising in private homes, their faces and other exposed flesh blocked out to protect their identities and also to call attention to the subversive nature of their actions under the current regime. Ghasemi states that depending on their contexts, his works 'are interpreted very differently and associated with subjects such as censorship, women's rights, the hijab, and Islam'.
Associated object
E.363-2010 (Series)
Bibliographic reference
Light from the Middle East: New Photography
Collection
Prints, Drawings & Paintings Collection
Accession number
E.355-2010

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Record createdJune 9, 2010
Record URL
https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1159915/parties-photograph-ghasemi-amirali/
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