Visual artist Azadeh Akhlaghi’s work depicting key moments in Iranian history is currently on display at the Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology, with the exhibit having opened early this month and running through March 21. Akhlaghi said she initially believed thorough research would allow her to accurately portray these historical events, but later found that “you can never really find the truth.” She explained, “I found so many contradictions in the records. In interviews, people censor themselves. There are historical documents from the secret police of the Shah that even now the government wouldn’t give me.”
The exhibit, titled “From Iran: A Visual Testimony,” covers pivotal events from 1908 to 1979, including military coups and resistance movements during Iran’s tumultuous twentieth century. Akhlaghi drew upon archival research and interviews to recreate eleven incidents as large-scale staged photographs—one image spans three feet by fifteen feet.
One notable photograph is “The First Iranian Women’s Movement,” which imagines armed women protesters preparing to march on parliament in 1911. Akhlaghi said her inspiration came from a brief mention in W. Morgan Shuster’s book “The Strangling of Persia.” She added details about how these women organized through secret societies and published a newspaper called Danesh.
Akhlaghi was awarded the Peabody Museum’s Robert Gardner Fellowship in Photography in 2019 for her work exploring themes such as cycles of suppression and victory throughout Iranian history. Reflecting on her artistic process, she said: “That’s why I always put myself somewhere in these images, in a red scarf, to say that this is my imagination of what happened — and it’s why I wanted to make the images as big as possible… These are not photojournalistic images: They’re not real. They’re art.”
She also expressed mixed feelings about launching her exhibit abroad amid current political tensions involving Iran: “I’m really honored to have received the Robert Gardner Fellowship and to have the first exhibit of this work be at the Peabody Museum… But I’m also sad because I wanted to have my first show in Tehran… Even my father, who lives in Iran, can’t see my images because they don’t have internet.” Looking ahead, Akhlaghi hopes viewers will recognize universal themes within her work: “A mourning mother is the same everywhere.”
