insight

Wanted in Iran: The Photographs

9 Jul 2009 by in Seen 15

Andrew Sullivan’s “Daily Dish” has done substantial work covering the protests against the election in Iran. His post this morning “Counter-Targeting the Protestors” led to a site controlled by the Iranian government, where the regime was posting candid photographs of Mousavi supporters demonstrating in the streets, and using the site as a plea to the public to help with identifications.

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In looking at these pictures, I was struck by their strength as photographs, not just as politically-charged documents, but as pictures with their own aesthetic power. They’re digital WANTED posters, essentially, and I’ve never seen anything like them. The foregrounds, the backgrounds, the croppings, the candidness of the subjects, the intention of the unknown photographer(s), the ominous red halos (or targets), the use of the images – everything about them is compelling, captivating, subject to discussion, and unknowable.

The Iranian gov’t site is currently down, but I was able to grab all 77 of the images. They’re available here as a zip file: Wanted.zip, or in this set Wanted in Iran on flickr.

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I’d be interested to see if there’s some kind of creative remixing that might occur with these. Their provenance is as mysterious as their subject. Might the photographs have been made by Mousavi supporters, posted to pro-Mousavi sites, and then downoloaded and photoshopped by the regime? Or would the regime have their own cadre of photographers out photographing protestors (a common sight in San Francisco, New York, or London) to create evidence that might enable prosecutions down the line?

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While their intended use is painfully clear, as digital photographs, there’s a unique and troubling power in their aggregate. Let us know what you think below, and if you have great ideas for their repurposing, please share what you’ve done.

wanted

  • http://www.michaeldavidmurphy.com mdm

    I've confirmed that at least one of these pictures was taken by Olivier Laban-Mattei for AFP/Getty, and was originally posted on The Big Picture. The doctored picture below links to the original.

    <img border=”0″ src=”http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3510/3704219527_8e91df6ae4_o.jpg”>

  • http://www.skyenott.com/ skyepn

    The Long Lens of the Law: “If you know this suspect, touch here”

    The Vancouver police have been using photographs for years, here's a piece from the 1994 Stanley Cup riots:

    http://archives.cbc.ca/society/crime_justice/to…

    I remember a few years back they had a webpage with photos very similar to the above, except from a riot after Guns & Roses cancelled a tour date… yeah here it is. Compare & contrast.

    http://exclaim.ca/articles/net.aspx?csid1=45

    http://web.archive.org/web/20030603172322/www.c…

  • http://www.skyenott.com/ skyepn

    Wow, that's great, trying to ID and presumably prosecute a guy that is trying to HELP a govt riot police guy from getting torn apart by the crowd. “A backer of Mir Hossein Mousavi helps evacuate an injured riot-police officer during riots in Tehran on June 13, 2009. (OLIVIER LABAN-MATTEI/AFP/Getty Images)”

  • http://www.michaeldavidmurphy.com mdm

    A Guns n' Roses riot in Canada in 2002? Who knew?

    I know that the police photographed protesters at the RNC in NYC in 2004 (as well as the DNC Denver last year, and the RNC in Minneapolis) and they may have asked the public for help w/ IDs. There was something far more sinister in these Iran pics, though. Probably the fact that the red halo felt like such a literal target.

    The regime isn't looking to ID these people to give them a fair trial…

  • Claydo

    Note to self: Where a face mask or balaclava where protesting against an oppressive totalitarian regime!

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  • vig

    Your question: “Might the photographs have been made by Mousavi supporters, posted to pro-Mousavi sites, and then downoloaded and photoshopped by the regime? Or would the regime have their own cadre of photographers out photographing protestors (a common sight in San Francisco, New York, or London) to create evidence that might enable prosecutions down the line?”

    Many regimes post plain-clothes police personnel within demonstration groups to take photographs. In Malaysia, I've seen this happen countless times- strange people who stand about a demonstration with seemingly no agenda but to take photographs. But everyone here knows who they are- the SB or special branch. This unit has a file on each of these persons.

    A Malaysian senior citizen was recently pulled aside by the SB and showed photos of her in a student rally in London against the M'sian government in the 1960s. She was cordially asked if “she still felt the same way about her country”. This clearly shows that this is nothing new and has been going on for a long time.

    Protesters arent the only people caught on the government camera. Press photographers, cameramen and journalists are also photographed and kept on record. I'm assuming that perhaps these photos may be used against them when re-entering the country.

    Only recently there was a piece of news on the detaining of two youth activists in Azerbaijan in what could be an orchestrated government operation to reprimand and silence certain members of society. http://frontlineclub.com/blogs/alisnovruzov/200…

    The faces above encircled in red are all marked men and women. They'll are all being watched. And if the Iranian government ever needed a fall-guy for anything, one of those faces may be just fit the bill.

    Governments have always sought many devices for citizen control. What is going on in Iran is nothing new. Its really what the Gestapo and the CIA have done for years, only now its taken down to the street- yours and mine.

  • http://www.michaeldavidmurphy.com mdm

    Thanks for sharing this, vig. Unreal about the protester who was asked if they “still felt the same way” forty years after the fact. There's nothing like the paranoia of authoritarianism.

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  • babaea

    Actually there are other Blogs that do “WANTED” government “thugs”.

    Here you go:
    http://omid57.blogspot.com/2009/06/blog-post_58…

  • babaea

    It was actually started by protesters to identify the government thugs (e.g. http://omid57.blogspot.com/2009/06/blog-post_58…) . The government started to do this a couple of days later.

  • http://www.michaeldavidmurphy.com mdm

    Thanks for sharing this, vig. Unreal about the protester who was asked if they “still felt the same way” forty years after the fact. There's nothing like the paranoia of authoritarianism.

    The Iranian sites are back online and can be seen here:
    http://gerdab.ir/fa/pages/?cid=407
    http://gerdab.ir/fa/pages/?cid=422

  • babaea

    Actually there are other Blogs that do “WANTED” government “thugs”.

    Here you go:
    http://omid57.blogspot.com/2009/06/blog-post_58…

  • babaea

    It was actually started by protesters to identify the government thugs (e.g. http://omid57.blogspot.com/2009/06/blog-post_58…) . The government started to do this a couple of days later.

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