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Shenasnameh
(2007-2010)

Shenasnameh is the name of the official Iranian Birth Certificate. It is valid for life, but the photograph which it contains must be updated according to the standards.

13 years ago, I was waiting in a reception room, holding the birth certificates of my mother and myself, my eyes began to flick from the picture of my mother to the picture of myself, and back again. A sudden realisation came upon me of what these pictures meant, of what they showed, and what they didn’t show. My mother and I, for all our differences, were welded into one being.  I looked like my mother, and she looked like me. But it went beyond that. All of a sudden I realised that all Iranian women were being restricted to look the same, like us; plain faces under hairless scarves.

That same day my fingerprint was fixed next to my image and my mother’s fingerprint was fixed next to her image. But though the faces had become the same, the fingerprints were different.



"While the nearly identical images reflect the limited representation of women in today’s Iran, put together in one narrative, they still tell quietly personal stories – in the face of this system, these women have found tiny ways to take back control and to define themselves on their own terms. The photobook, with its thoughtful design, movingly delivers a message about faces and identities, where stubborn diversity and subversive independence can still flourish behind the blankness of common facades and stereotypes."  Collector Daily Review by Helka Aleksdottir.


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Book




First Edition May 2016. Co-Published by ICVL Studio & RRB Publishing Printing: Full colour Indigo on 118grs Mohawk Superfine Eggshell
Binding: Fully Hand Bind in Winters Novalite
Every book comes in a handmade designed slipecase
Size: 100 x 136 mm Extent: 120 pages
Language: English / Persian
ISBN: 978-0-9932323-4-3

Awards
    • Winner of the Photobook Flip Award 2016
    • Special Mention at Maribor Photobook Award 2016
    • Finalist Best British Book Design and Production 2016
    • Shortlisted 2016 Best Author Book, Rencontres Arles  

Reviews

Financial  Times  (EN)
Foam Magazine (NL)
La Repubblica (Italy)
IMA Magazine (JP)
PH Museum (UK)
Photomonitor (UK)
Aesthetica Magazine (UK)
Raw View Magazine (NY)
PHMuseum (EN)
Photo Eye (US)
Collector Daily (EN)
Kassel Foto Buch (GE)
Gabriela Cendoya (SP)





Exhibitions


Shenasnameh, Benaki Museum, Athens, Greece, 2017, Curated by Natasha Christia Shenasnameh , VIGILANCE, STRUGGLE, PRIDE: THROUGH HER EYES, Organ Vida Festival, Zagreb, Croatia, 2018, Curated by Marina Paulenka. Shenasnameh , VIGILANCE, STRUGGLE, PRIDE: THROUGH HER EYES, Organ Vida Festival, Zagreb, Croatia, 2018, Curated by Marina Paulenka. Shenasnameh , VIGILANCE, STRUGGLE, PRIDE: THROUGH HER EYES, Organ Vida Festival, Zagreb, Croatia, 2018, Curated by Marina Paulenka. Shenasnameh , VIGILANCE, STRUGGLE, PRIDE: THROUGH HER EYES, Organ Vida Festival, Zagreb, Croatia, 2018, Curated by Marina Paulenka. Shenasnameh , VIGILANCE, STRUGGLE, PRIDE: THROUGH HER EYES, Organ Vida Festival, Zagreb, Croatia, 2018, Curated by Marina Paulenka. Shenasnameh, Reminders Photography Stronghold Gallery, Tokyo , Japan, 2017, Curated by Yumi Goto Shenasnameh, Reminders Photography Stronghold Gallery, Tokyo , Japan, 2017, Curated by Yumi Goto Shenasnameh, Reminders Photography Stronghold Gallery, Tokyo , Japan, 2017, Curated by Yumi Goto Where Time Stood Still, Ffotogallery , Cardiff, Wales, 2019, Co curated by David Drake and Amak Mahmoodian



Multimedia