Hannah DarabiSoleil of Persian Square

“Paris-based Iranian photographer Hannah Darabi works on Iran’s recent history through her images, focusing on their significance in popular culture. After the Iranian revolution of 1979, between 500,000 and 800,000 people fled Iran to the United States. For this series, she offers a look at this Iranian diaspora in South Los Angeles, in Orange County, in an area sometimes renamed Tehrangeles by its inhabitants.

Hannah Darabi shows the presence of pop culture, very strong in this community but forbidden in Iran. She therefore mixes street photos, a facsimile of the local classified ads magazine, portraits and images of music cassettes or other cultural objects that refer to a common culture that is hardly correlated with its country of origin for the younger generations.”