Kaveh Golestan – Biography
Kaveh Golestan (1950-2003) is an important and prolific pioneer of Iranian documentary photography. His photographic practice hugely informed the work of future generations of Iranian artists.
Besides numerous socially motivated projects such as Prostitute, Worker, and Asylum created in the 1970s, Kaveh Golestan documented many major historical events ranging from the conflict in Northern Ireland to the Iranian revolution, the Iran-Iraq War, and the Gulf Wars. In 1979 he was awarded the Robert Capa Gold Medal for “superlative photography requiring exceptional courage and enterprise abroad”. He wasn’t able to pick up the award until thirteen years later when the work was no longer considered a threat to the Iranian government.
Golestan stepped on a fatal landmine on 2 April 2003 while on a BBC assignment in Iraq and died in Kifri in Northern Iraq.
Kaveh Golestan in Public Collections:
Museé d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris acquired twelve vintage silver prints from the Prostitute (1975-77) series in September 2015.
Los Angeles County Museum of Art acquired ten vintage works from the Az Div o Dad (1976) Polaroid series in September 2015.
Los Angeles County Museum of Art acquired one print from the Revolution (1978-9) series in September 2015.
Tate Modern acquired twenty vintage silver prints from the Prostitute (1975-77) series in November 2016.
Victoria & Albert Museum acquired eight vintage Polaroids from the Az Div o Dad (1976) series in 2023.
Kaveh Golestan – Selected Solo Exhibitions:
- Kaveh Golestan, Seyhoun Gallery (1975)
- Az Div O Dad, Seyhoun Gallery (1976)
- Three Report: Prostitute, Worker, Asylum, Obeid Gallery, Tehran University (11-24 Ordibehesht 2537 (1357) / (1- 14/05/1978)
- Recording the Truth in Iran 1950-2003, The Kunsthal Rotterdam (2008)
- Kaveh Golestan: The Citadel, Foam Fotografiemuseum Amsterdam, Amsterdam, curator Vali Mahlouji (Archaeology of the Final Decade) (2014)
- Recreating Shahr-e No: The Intimate Politics of the Marginal, Museé d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, curator Vali Mahlouji (Archaeology of the Final Decade) as part of Unedited History: Iran 1960-2014, (2014)
- Recreating Shahr-e No: The Intimate Politics of the Marginal, MAXXI Museum of XXI Century Arts, curator Vali Mahlouji (Archaeology of the Final Decade) as part of Unedited History: Iran 1960-2014, (2014-15)
- Az Div o Dad: Fantastical Polaroids of Kaveh Golestan, Project Space, Art Dubai Modern, curator Vali Mahlouji (Archaeology of the Final Decade), (2015)
- Kaveh Golestan: Prostitute 1975-77, Photo London, Somerset House, curator Vali Mahlouji (Archaeology of the Final Decade), (2015)
- Kaveh Golestan, Tate Modern, London, twenty vintage prints Prostitute 1975-77, series with documentary material by Archaeology of the Final Decade/Vali Mahlouji (2017-18).
- Recreating the Citadel, Prostitute 1975-77, curator Vali Mahlouji, Rohtas 2 Gallery, Lahore, 2019.