ماه طلعت، Moon-faced #66

In ancient Persian literature, ماه طلعت، (“Moon-faced”) was a genderless adjective used to define beauty in both men and women. In contemporary Iran, it refers to the beauty of women only. Something similar happened, in the world of images, to the Qajar dynasty portrait paintings: the modernization of Iran, the influence of the European tradition of realistic painting, and the use of of camera technology and therefore photography as a model, overshadowed and ended the queer representation of genders that historically characterized these paintings, largely known for their gender-undifferentiation. For her project, “ماه طلعت، Moon-faced,” Allahyari uses a carefully researched and chosen serie...View all