Hannah Darabi, Enghelab Street, A Revolution through Books: Iran 1979 – 1983

(Paris/Leipzig: Le Bal/Spector Books, 2018)

I edited the English edition of Enghelab Street, the first book to explore the role of the photobook during the Iranian Revolution. The book received the Historical Book Award at the Rencontres d'Arles in 2019.

Publisher’s description:

Enghelab Street, Revolution Street, is located in the centre of Tehran—a main artery in the city’s cultural life with a host of bookshops. The publication presents a variety of photographic and propaganda books collected by Iranian artist Hannah Darabi. Drawing on works published between 1979 and 1983—years corresponding to the short period when freedom of speech prevailed at the end of the Shah’s regime and the beginning of the Islamic government—she takes us to the heart of an intense artistic and cultural period in Iranian history. Darabi has developed a visual essay accompanied by a critical apparatus written by Chowra Makaremi. The publication with its extensive landscape of books gives us the opportunity to look at rare printed matter for the first time. It forms part of the series Applied Publishing Studies and is produced in conjunction with the exhibition Hannah Darabi, Enghelab Street, A Revolution through Books: Iran 1979–1983, LE BAL, Paris, from 9 January to 11 February 2019. With the support of the print publishing grant by the Centre national des arts plastiques and of the European Research Council.