About Us

We started our mission at Bāygān: House of Photographs & Words in May 2020. We indexed the names of Iranian photographers; adding some and removing others, but the list is yet to be consolidated through time. Our focus is on Iran’s fine art photography. Although we know that arriving at a comprehensive definition for art photography is difficult, if not completely impossible. We also know that no matter how much we expand our vision we cannot put our personal view aside. During this short time we have classified the work of 181 photographers in order to understand what genres and topics they have covered and to observe the periods during which the artists have been more prolific. At Bāygān we have displayed the work of more than 40 photographers next to each other, with hopes of creating an image of contemporary Iranian photography. Donating their photographs, the photographers have been kind enough to trust us. The esteemed photographers are as follows: Ahmad Aali, Yahya Dehghanpour, Kaveh Golestan (the works of whom were kindly donated to Bāygān by Hengameh Golestan), Hengameh Golestan, Bahman Jalali (the works of whom were kindly donated to Bāygān by Rana Javadi), Mahshid Farahmand Noshiravani, Rana Javadi, Mohsen Rastani, Seifollah Samadian, Jassem Ghazbanpour, Mitra Tabrizian, Mehran Mohajer, Shahriar Tavakoli, Peyman Hooshmandzadeh, Abbas Kowsari, Shadi Ghadirian, Shirana Shahbazi, Newsha Tavakolian, Omid Salehi, Arash Hanaei, Mehdi Vosoughnia, Mazdak Ayari, Kourosh Adim, Mehraneh Atashi, Mehrdad Afsari, Ali and Ramyar, Gohar Dashti, Mohammad Ghazali, Behnam Sadighi, Mohammadreza Mirzaei, Sasan Abri, Mehrdad Naraghi, Meysam Mahfouz, Alborz Kazemi, Mohsen Shahmardi, Mohsen Yazdipour, Mahboube Karamli, Tahmineh Monzavi, Babak Kazemi, Shahin Esfandiari, etc.

Furthermore, we have classified more than 2000 books in our small library (most of which are in the realm of photography.) The library may serve future research on Iranian photography. We hope that our friends would assist us in enriching the library. To this day Rana Javadi has unstintingly made an invaluable donation of books from her personal collection which was co-owned by Bahman Jalali. Hengameh Golestan, Yahya Dehghanpour, Reza Rafiei, Alireza Niknezhad, Amir Hossein Ghodsi, Mehran Effatrokh, Mehrdad Nadjmabadi, Mahboube Karamli, Sogol Ghaznavi and Meysam Mahfouz have also donated books and documents to the library of Bāygān: House of Photographs & Words. This house would not have taken form were it not for the help and guidance of Mazdak Ayari, Mahshid Mohajer, Sina Momtaheni, Afsaneh Abedin, Mahdieh Hosseini, Setareh Modarresi, Elahe Panahi, Ali Hosseinkhani, Mostafa Nemati, Laleh Ghadakpour and Neda Monem. 

Your comments would undoubtedly help us address our current deficiencies.  

Bāygān: House of Photographs & Words

Founder: Ghazaleh Hedayat

Bāygān Board of Advisors: Mehran Mohajer, Rana Javadi and Mehrdad Nadjmabadi 

Bāygān Team: Sogol Ghaznavi, Fahameh Pirzad, Mahtab Ghaedi and Behzad Kazemnia