German photographer Casey Hugelfink had access to the Islamic republic in the dark decade after the 1979 revolution, throughout the Iran-Iraq war, when the country was sealed off to reporters and most of the world. She captured these scenes of everyday life with a 35mm Olympus OM and processed them more recently with the Camera+ app on iPhone
I was married to an Iranian and we owned a shop with Iranian handicrafts in Munich. For this reason we had connections with traders in the bazaar in Isfahan and I visited the country several times between 1980 and 1989. We also did lots of family visits, but I never lived there.
I really love Iran and its people. Those years of war had been a hard time and I remember ration coupons, nightly blackouts and losses in every family. But this is slowly fading away and what remains is so much love and the strong will of the people supporting each other.
A bakery in Yaft Abad, then a village southwest of Tehran. November 9, 1982. Above: A madrasa in Isfahan during Ramadan. Women are usually barred from this place, but the doorman said he was making an exception because all the students were asleep. And so I got to catch a glimpse on this forbidden place. Photographs: Casey HugelfinkWild horses in a natural preserve accessible by boat. Near Bandar-e Anzali, a harbour town on the Caspian Sea near Rasht. August 15, 1980. Photograph: Casey HugelfinkImamzadeh Davoud near the Alborz mountains in Tehran, Iran. Photograph: Casey HugelfinkTajrish bazaar, north Tehran, November 17, 1982. Photograph: Casey HugelfinkAn Alam in Yaft Abad. ‘Alams were originally battle standards, designed to be carried like flags into the fight, but in 17th century Iran they were used in great religious processions, and rallied not warriors, but the faithful.’ November 9, 1982. Photograph: Casey HugelfinkMarching off to war, and returning from war (below), are candid shots I made out of a car in Isfahan. I wasn’t sure I was allowed to take photos like this, those showing war and death nakedly, without propaganda, shahids (martyrs), and whatever. But I felt the urge to capture it. Photograph: Casey HugelfinkReturning from war. Photograph: Casey HugelfinkReturning from the war. Photograph: Casey HugelfinkTajrish mosque, November 17, 1982. Photograph: Casey HugelfinkLadies football is a message from Iranian women to the west: ‘Yes, we’re wearing hijab, we are religious and we say yes to the Islamic revolution. But we aren’t opressed at all, we’re enjoying life, we’re having fun and we’re playing football! So, what?’ Photograph: Casey HugelfinkPlayground in Rasht. Photograph: Casey Hugelfink
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Book market in Qom. Photograph: Casey HugelfinkBandar-e Anzali, Iran. Photograph: Casey HugelfinkBandar-e Anzali, Iran. Photograph: Casey HugelfinkA street in the village of Yaftabad. My husband’s family had a summer house there with a huge garden and ‘trees of all kind of fruit that grow on earth.’ It was a beautiful place. Today it has been swallowed by the city of Tehran, and the garden doesn’t exist anymore.. Photograph: Casey HugelfinkWe ran into ‘the last dervish’ in the yard of the Shah Abdol Azim Shrine in Rey. Photograph: Casey HugelfinkMasuleh, a township in west Gilan. Photograph: Casey HugelfinkOn a street in Masuleh, western Gilan. March 26, 1989. Photograph: Casey HugelfinkA street in Masuleh then, and as more recently depicted on the Islamic republic’s Spanish TV network. Photograph: Casey HugelfinkPower down in Yaft Abad. The family garden had an artificial irrigation system built by a German engineer in the 19th century. During the Iran-Iraq war there were many days without electricity and water. We had to wash our dishes in the residual pool water. November 10, 1982. Photograph: Casey HugelfinkThe photographer in Qom with her two children and a friend. Photograph: Casey HugelfinkKucheh Rezaie near the Tehran Bazaar. November 13, 1982. Photograph: Casey Hugelfink
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