Great photography from Iran

Arthurwg

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Wow. Those are wonderful pictures. Makes me appreciate how easy most of us have it here in the USA.
 

reddesert

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jtk said:
In my ignorance I had assumed that Islam had theological problems with photographs.
Click to expand...

A few years ago I saw a very nice exhibition called "My Iran: Six Women Photographers" at the Smithsonian Museum of Asian Art: https://asia.si.edu/exhibition/my-iran-six-women-photographers/

It is my understanding that issues with photography and visual representational art in Islam derive from texts that originally forbade the making of images and statues such as idols, in opposition to paganistic traditions, similarly to the Judaic prohibition on graven idols. Different religious authorities are differently strict in how they interpret this, from "images are ok as long as there is no intent to worship," to "images are ok, but not of people," to "no photography or representational visual art." Keeping in mind that there is no single central religious authority in Islam, and so different tendencies have very different rules. I think they all agree that there is a prohibition on images of the prophet Muhammad, though. (I'm not Muslim, though I'm used to reading this kind of textual interpretation.)
 

guangong

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Thank you, jtk!
The truly miraculous people are those who can make feature length movies that describe true conditions in Iran and China. Two come to mind: an Iranian film about a young girl going to a soccer game (women not allowed to attend, I have forgotten title), and a Chinese film about a young college graduate who was sold into slavery (not that long ago young lady who escaped North Korea into China, only to have her and her mother sold into slavery. I mention film making, because a man with a camera is much simpler than a film crew, lights, sound, etc,etc. Nontheless, I often takes guts to take pictures that some regimes find dangerous.
 
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