The exhibition includes works from Chinese photographers Liu Haixing andixia, as well as works from Iranian photographers Peyman Hooshmandzadeh and Shadi Ghadirian. This is the first Iran photography exhibition in China.

Iran is a historic civilization with splendid culture, however for the last four decades, Iran has been shrouded by a mysterious veil. Iran has recently begun opening up allowing for greater understanding from the outside world. Through the lenses of four different photographers from two different cultural backgrounds, this exhibition introduces Iranian history and culture to the outside world.

The four photographers aren't only photographers but also writers and poets. This gives their work a special literary and poetic feel. The Dove Flying to Mosque by the Chinese photographer Liu Haixing was captured in front of the Sheikh Lutefulao Mosque in Isfahan. The girls flocking to the mosque are pure, beautiful and peaceful like doves. Here Iran’s beauty and grace are depicted. On the other hand, the female Iranian photographer Shadi's works show the trauma experienced by the Iranian people from the Iran-Iraq War. Through her photography, Iran is depicted as war torn and devastated. Each artist captures a different side of Iran, from classical themes to modern trauma.

Liu Haixing

Photographer, poet. Beauty of China was a tour exhibition in Sun Yat Sen Memorial Hall; National Art Museum of China; Hexiangning Art Museum; Guyuan Museum of Art. It caused a sensation in Taiwan, was called the new representative photographer of Chinese Scenery Photography. The well-known Taiwan critic said "It's hard to not get a shocking; distant; sadness; wide feeling from Liu Haixing's work". His work is even higher level than the level with profound skills and accidental spirit. It is more like a natural artist. Soul is A Beauty- Photography with Life has been established by The Commercial Press.

Liu is also a late poet. He started to write collection of poems Sun's Tear when he was forty two. The Sun's Tear became the first collection of poems was printed by both The Commercial Press in Taiwan and Mainland. The famous scholar Mian Xie appraised his poem "It is so touchable that nowadays poem is filled with language foam and trash; he is carefully choosing and building those words sentences so that his work is full of beautiful rhythms. Mister Jiayan Yan said that "Haixing is using poem to think life in a philosophical way. His poem is filled with sense and intention. Colorful content brings the poem different styles."

Zi Xia

A great essayist. Most of her works can be found on Chinese Writers Magazine. At the same time, flower and still life photography are also important ways of creative medium for her.

Peyman Hooshmandzadeh

A well-known documentary photographer in Iran. He studied photography at the Azad University of Tehran. He is known for his series of photographs:"Cafe Shooka"and "Teahouse". Today he works as a photojournalist for several newspapers in Iran and media from other countries. A compilation of short notes "Alcohollypsis" was published in February 2004. A compilation of short notes "Alcohollypsis" was published in February 2004.

Photographs by Peyman have appeared in several personal and group exhibitions in Tehran: at the Museum of Contemporary Art, the Photography Biennal and the Silk Road Gallery in Tehran. Two times in 1999 and 2000 has won the annual Press Photography Festival award in Tehran. In 2007 he participated in the First Biennale of Images of the World (Photoquai), organized by Musée du Quai Branly in Paris. Peyman's work is well-know by showing Iranian's life. With humanism and concerns, his work records and presents ordinary Iranians' limited freed life under the religion and politic pressure.


Shadi Ghadirian
Born in 1974 in Tehran, Iran. She is a photographer who continues to live and work in Iran. Ghadirian studied photography at Azad University (in Tehran). After finishing her B. A., Ghadirian began her professional career as a photographer. She says that "quite by accident", the subjects of her first two series were "women".
Ghadirian was inspired to make work reflecting what she saw as the duality and contradiction of life. Her Qajar Series (1998-2001) consists of small studio portraits of women dressed in the nineteenth-century Qajar style. Many of the women photographed are Ghadirian's friends and family. The backgrounds of these portraits resemble those found in photographic studios of that period. However, the artist has added some modern anomalies or dissonances, such as a mountain bike, a newspaper, or a Pepsi-Cola can. Ghadirian plays with these juxtapositions and contrasts, thus expressing the difficulties women face in Iran today - torn between tradition and the modernity of globalization. These composed portraits depict women unsure to which era they belong.

Ghadirian made her Like Every Day Series after her marriage to fellow photographer, Peyman Hooshmandzadeh. In this body of work, Ghadirian comments upon the daily repetitive routine to which many women find themselves consigned and by which many women are defined.

Her work is intimately linked to her identity as a Muslim woman living in Iran. Nonetheless, her art also deals with issues relevant to women living in other parts of the world. She questions the role of women in society and explores ideas of censorship, religion, modernity, and the status of women. Ghadirian′s profile in the western art world is increasing rapidly. Her work has been exhibited in museums and galleries across Europe, and the U.S.A. She has also been featured in print and electronic media like The Guardian from U.K. Her work has also exhibited in contemporary photography exhibition Light From the Middle East in Victoria and Albert Museum in London.