Bahman Jalali (1944 – 15 January 2010) was an Iranian photographer who played a significant role in educating a new generation of Iranian photographers. He taught photography at several universities in Iran over a 30-year period. Jalali's work is held in the collections of the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

and

Los Angeles County Museum of Art The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) is an art museum located on Wilshire Boulevard in the Miracle Mile vicinity of Los Angeles. LACMA is on Museum Row, adjacent to the La Brea Tar Pits (George C. Page Museum). LACMA was founded in 19 ...

Career

Jalali graduated with a degree in Economics from Melli University in

Tehran Tehran (; fa, تهران ) is the largest city in Tehran Province and the capital of Iran. With a population of around 9 million in the city and around 16 million in the larger metropolitan area of Greater Tehran, Tehran is the most popul ...

, then started his career as a photographer with ''Tamasha Magazine'' in 1972. In 1974 he joined the

Royal Photographic Society The Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain, commonly known as the Royal Photographic Society (RPS), is one of the world's oldest photographic societies. It was founded in London, England, in 1853 as the Photographic Society of London with ...

in Great Britain. He is best known for his documentary photographs from the

Iranian Revolution The Iranian Revolution ( fa, انقلاب ایران, Enqelâb-e Irân, ), also known as the Islamic Revolution ( fa, انقلاب اسلامی, Enqelâb-e Eslâmī), was a series of events that culminated in the overthrow of the Pahlavi dyna ...

in 1979 and from the

Iran–Iraq War The Iran–Iraq War was an armed conflict between Iran and Iraq that lasted from September 1980 to August 1988. It began with the Iraqi invasion of Iran and lasted for almost eight years, until the acceptance of United Nations Security Counci ...

, but after the revolution he focused more on teaching photography at Iranian universities than practicing it. Jalali was a founding member and curator at the Museum of Photography in

(also known as Akskhaneh Shahr), Iran's first museum of photography. His last work was a photo series called "Image of Imaginations", which took three years (2003–2006) for him to complete. It was a mixture of flowers or Iranian calligraphy with old photographs drawn from Iranian photographic history. Jalali later explained: "I have been exposed to many images by little known photographers around the country. Those that I could keep, I have held as mementos, and others have left their marks on my imagination." The

Musée d'Arts de Nantes The Fine Arts Museum of Nantes, along with 14 other provincial museums, was created, by consular decree on 14 Fructidor in year IX (31 August 1801). Today the museum is one of the largest museums in the region. The facades, roof and stairs in the ...

in Nantes, France bought this photo series for its collection. Jalali was given an homage for his forty-year career in photography by the

Fundació Antoni Tàpies The Fundació Antoni Tàpies (, 'Antoni Tàpies Foundation') is a cultural center and museum, located in Carrer d'Aragó, in Barcelona, Catalonia. It is dedicated mainly to the life and works of the painter Antoni Tàpies. The Fundació was cre ...

in Barcelona with a solo exhibition curated by

Catherine David Catherine David (born 1954) is a French art historian, curator and museum director. David was the first woman and the first non-German speaker to curate documenta X in Kassel, Germany (21 June – 28 September 1997). David is currently depu ...

from September to December 2007 and the publication of a monograph. He was a contributor to the exhibition in the

, London, ''Word into Art : Artists of the Modern Middle East'' in 2006. Until the end of his life, Jalali was a member of the editorial board for ''Aksnameh'', a bi-monthly journal of photography in Tehran.

Death

Jalali was being treated for

pancreatic cancer Pancreatic cancer arises when cells in the pancreas, a glandular organ behind the stomach, begin to multiply out of control and form a mass. These cancerous cells have the ability to invade other parts of the body. A number of types of pancr ...

in Germany. He returned to his home in Tehran on 14 January 2010 and died the next morning at the age of 65.

Personal life

Jalali was the husband of photographer Rana Javadi.

Publications

*''Days of Blood, Days of Fire.'' Tehran: Zamineh, 1979. **Leipzig: Spector, 2020. . With essays in Persian and English. 35 photographs by Jalali, 16 by Rana Javadi, and some by others. *''Bahman Jalali''. Barcelona: Fundaciò

Antoni Tàpies Antoni Tàpies i Puig, 1st Marquess of Tápies (; 13 December 1923 – 6 February 2012) was a Catalan People, Catalan painter, sculptor and art theorist, who became one of the most famous European artists of his generation. Life The son of Jo ...

, 2007. Edited by Cathérine David. ISBN 978-8488786326. 296 pages. Published on the occasion of an exhibition. * Anahita Ghabaian Etehadieh, sous la direction de, "La photographie iranienne, Un regard sur la création contemporaine" (L'Atelier d'édition-Loco/Silk Road Gallery, 2011). 191 pages. *''The Familiar Stranger''. Tehran: Nazar, 2021. . With essays in Persian and English.

Collections

Jalali's work is held in the following permanent collections: *

, London: 1 print (as of July 2021) *

, Los Angeles: 2 prints (as of July 2021)

Awards

*2011: Spectrum International Award for Photography,

Sprengel Museum Sprengel Museum is a museum of modern art in Hanover, Lower Saxony, holding one of the most significant collections of modern art in Germany. It is located in a building situated adjacent to the Masch Lake (german: Maschsee) approximately south ...

, Hannover

References

External links

Bahman Jalali in Kargah

L'ànima d'una màquina sense ànima: Reflexions sobre la fotografia de Bahman Jalali
(Catalan) an essay by Hamid Dabashi
Bahman Jalali / Image Of Imagination

Fundació Antoni Tàpies Press images : Bahman Jalali

Unfinished Picture : Bahman Jalali – A documentary About Bahman Jalali by Amid Rashedi&Tooraj Rabbani

Silk Road Gallery, Bahman Jalali
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jalali, Bahman 1944 births 2010 deaths Deaths from pancreatic cancer Deaths from cancer in Iran Iranian photographers