Mothers of Martyrs
Photograph
2006 (photographed)
2006 (photographed)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
Newsha Tavakolian is a young Iranian self-taught photographer who has been working as a photojournalist in Iran since the age of 16 and internationally since 2002.
Mothers of Martyrs is a poignant and visually striking series of double portraits in which mothers hold framed portraits of their sons who died in the Iran-Iraq war. They serve to highlight the emotional power of photographic portraiture. Some of the fallen soldiers look remarkably young, and as Tavakolian notes, the mothers 'are getting older, but their boys will always stay the same age'.
Mothers of Martyrs is a poignant and visually striking series of double portraits in which mothers hold framed portraits of their sons who died in the Iran-Iraq war. They serve to highlight the emotional power of photographic portraiture. Some of the fallen soldiers look remarkably young, and as Tavakolian notes, the mothers 'are getting older, but their boys will always stay the same age'.
Object details
| Categories | |
| Object type | |
| Title | Mothers of Martyrs (series title) |
| Materials and techniques | Digital c-type print |
| Brief description | Photograph, from the series 'Mothers of Martyrs', digital c-type print, by Newsha Tavakolian, Iran, 2006 |
| Physical description | A colour photograph of a woman with headscarf standing against a wall with Arabic graffiti holding a framed portrait of a young man in uniform. |
| Dimensions |
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| Copy number | A.P. |
| Gallery label | These double portraits attest to photography’s emotive power. Elderly Iranian women face the camera holding framed photographs of their sons who died decades earlier in the Iran–Iraq war (1980–8). One of the soldiers looks remarkably young, and as the artist notes, the mothers age ‘but their boys will always stay the same age’. The women’s hands grasp the frames, showing that photographs can be tangible objects of remembrance.
(Marta Weiss)(September 2012) |
| Credit line | Art Fund Collection of Middle Eastern Photography at the V&A and the British Museum |
| Subjects depicted | |
| Place depicted | |
| Summary | Newsha Tavakolian is a young Iranian self-taught photographer who has been working as a photojournalist in Iran since the age of 16 and internationally since 2002. Mothers of Martyrs is a poignant and visually striking series of double portraits in which mothers hold framed portraits of their sons who died in the Iran-Iraq war. They serve to highlight the emotional power of photographic portraiture. Some of the fallen soldiers look remarkably young, and as Tavakolian notes, the mothers 'are getting older, but their boys will always stay the same age'. |
| Associated object | E.357-2010 (Series) |
| Bibliographic reference | Light from the Middle East: New Photography |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | E.358-2010 |
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| Record created | June 9, 2010 |
| Record URL |
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