Magnum Book Club: And They Laughed at Me
Stéphanie Papa, writer at Magnum, takes a closer look at Newsha Tavakolian's monograph, an intimate journey through two decades of her practice in Iran
Let’s take a closer look at Newsha Tavakolian’s latest book And They Laughed at Me, an intimate reflection on her beginnings as a young photographer in Iran. After her father’s death, Tavakolian revisited her early negatives from 1995-2001. Here, experimenting with chemical processing to produce unpredictable results, she brings to light what she calls “crooked, out-of-focus snapshots.”
A diversion from her precise, high-resolution images, And They Laughed at Me gives meaning to flaws, a testament to her determination to document a singular period in her life from her own perspective.
The book unfolds as a personal journal, portraying loved ones and youth in Iran who carved out spaces of expression, in “a time of hope shattered, and teenage dreams destroyed by reality,” she writes. Contact sheets from her first major project, a student protest against the closure of a reformist newspaper, mark the beginning of her life in photography.
Tavakolian’s images depict a favorite coffee shop shuttered, an editor-in-chief in court, and moments of protest and resistance. In 1999, the newspaper she worked for closed down, and she began taking images from backstage at the City Theater in Tehran. There, she photographed an actress who, until then, was not allowed to move her body freely on stage.
Later, in 2017, Tavakolian captured unpopulated landscapes and portraits of women whose faces are covered so they remain unrecognized. An imperfect patchwork of everyday resilience, the book honors the women who enabled the cultural awakening of the present, who “fought alone in silence, during small and often in unnoticed moments,” Tavakolian writes.
“Being a part of what was happening around me it was as if a light shone down on me: I realized that in order to do justice to all who had been involved, I also had to alter my gaze, no longer wanting to see the world in a pathetic, melancholic way.” Returning to her archives marked a shift in perspective for Tavakolian. It allowed her to “shed her skin,” she says, and face the memories that made her who she is.
And They Laughed at Me is now available on the Magnum Store, shop here.
