Judging of the Photography section was very difficult

News ID: ۱۸۲۹۸

يکشنبه - ۰۴ خرداد ۲۰۰۷ / 2007 04 March

TEHRAN, (SCIB) - The photography session of the first grand exhibition of Aashoura was held in hall D26 of Tehran International fair yesterday in the presence of many photographers and photography enthusiasts. According to Shahed Cultural Information Base, Jasem Qazban Poor, member of the board of judges of the Photography section of the exhibition stated “This was our first experience of judging photographs; it was a very hard job and took us three days, because most photographs were of high standards”?. He went on to say “98 photos by 55 photographers were on display; this number could have increased to 3000 photos and the exhibition would been held at that size”? The judge of the photography section of this exhibition pointed to the quality of the works and mentioned “I hope that these photographs get archived with the permanent establishment of the exhibition secretariat so that we will possess a huge collection of photographs soon. I dare say this exhibition has the potential to go international.”? Responding to a question on the main criterion of the selection of these photographs, he said “The main criterion was Aba-Abdellah-el-Hossein, and the ability of the photographs to dismiss myths surrounding Aashoura event which have gained momentum especially in recent years. He added “Avoiding the modernity which overshadows the name of Imam Hussein and is in line with a series of myths and superstitions was our next criterion”?. Subsequently, Mojtaba Agha’ee, secretary of the photography section of the exhibition enumerated the objectives of this exhibition “One of the most important objectives of such an exhibition is to introduce a proper culture of mourning Imam Hussein’s martyrdom”? He reiterated “One of the toughest subjects to photograph is Aashoura ceremonies. Because the photographer is on one hand faced with a sea of emotions which he has to select from; on the other hand, he is faced with his personal emotions which shouldn’t be allowed to affect his work”? Agha’ee mentioned the names of the selected artists in the photography section and said “This section’s 5 selected photographers were not just selected because of one or two pictures; their whole collection was very impressive”?. The five selected photographers of this section were Hojjatollah Sepahvand, Yadollah Abdi, Amir Rostami, Hassan Ghaffari and Omid Salehi. Ebrahim Dehghan, Hassan Taheri, Mohammad Hossein Heydari, Maryam Fahimi and Kazem Hosseini were also acclaimed. After receiving his prize, Sepahvand stated “The point of a contest like this should only be to get together with other colleagues, not to win prizes”? He added “A good photographer should demonstrate himself in all fields and respect the values of photography.”? Abbass Khame Yar, the deputy of research and cultural relations of the foundation of martyrs and veterans’ affairs and Jamal Rahimian, secretary of the exhibition were present in this session along with members of the board of judges, photographers and photography enthusiasts.