Sara Abbaspour: Prelude

For more than a decade, Sara Abbaspour has been photographing moments of transition in Iran. The photographs, taken across various cities and locations in Iran capture a collaboration in between photographer and subjects. Most of the photographs included in this edit were made during the later stages of the Woman, Life, Freedom revolutionary movement in Iran, when society seemed to shift toward compassion, a renewed appreciation of feminine power, and a celebration of life and different ways of living.

“With a background in urban studies, I explore the transforming urban fabric, the city development plans, and their effect on people’s social and private lives. Through photographs, I intend to create a non-narrative narrative—a poetic reading of the transitions I recognize around and within myself. I am also interested in the shifting boundaries between interior and exterior spaces as mental spaces.
I often think of the photographs I make as self-portraits. I can photograph others only when I recognize a part of myself in them—perhaps an essence of my own cognition.
I find myself in women lighting cigarettes for each other, rising above a city that has not loved them back as much as they have loved it; in the stray female dog who guided me along a rural path; in a teenage boy discovering new perceptions of the world as his body and his perspective change; and in the secrets two teenage girls exchange in a skate park.” -SA

Saddle stitch, self-cover with rubber-stamped obi band
32 pages
5.5” ✕ 8”
300 copies 

2026
Edited by Justine Kurland
Designed by Martha Naranjo Sandoval and Aline Enríquez