Photojournalism Festival Opens at Tehran’s City Photo Museum
TEHRAN -- The 18th Doorbin.net Photojournalism Festival has opened its doors at Tehran’s City Photo Museum, offering visitors a sweeping visual record of a year marked by political change, environmental strain and the everyday rhythms of Iranian life.
The exhibition brings together 102 individual photographs and 11 curated photo series, each selected for its ability to document, illuminate and, in many cases, preserve unfolding histories.
Spanning politics, economics, culture and the arts, sports, religion, society and the environment, the images trace the contours of a country in motion. For nearly two decades, the festival has served as one of Iran’s most prominent platforms for documentary photography—a field that, in many ways, occupies the same cultural territory as the museum spaces and archival institutions that define global photographic heritage.
Throughout the week, the museum will host a series of talks and educational panels, inviting photographers, students and the public to consider how images shape our understanding of civic life. The sessions run December 7 to 9 and accompany an exhibition that opened on December 6 and will remain on view until December 11.
A jury composed of Farshad Abbasi, Marzieh Mousavi and Muhammad Berno, with long-time photojournalist Muhammad Nowrouzi as secretary, evaluated thousands of submissions. Their selections reflect a cross-section of contemporary Iranian photography—ranging from intimate human-scale stories to sweeping scenes that speak to collective experience.
Visual Culture and the Arts
Works by Ardalan Ashnagar, Omid Muhammadi, Amir Badrazzimi, Amirhussein Yousefi Kaysari and others anchor the cultural and artistic category, capturing everything from quiet studio rituals to large public gatherings in which art becomes a communal act.
Politics in Focus
Images by Afsaneh Jafari, Pejman Molaei, Hussein Saki and Saeed Sadeghi document moments of national political significance—photos that echo the long tradition of press imagery as both witness and historical record.
The Athletic Body
In the sports category, photographers such as Ehsan Jazini, Rana Bagheri and Forough Taherkhani turn their lenses toward movement, teamwork and the emotional drama of competition.
Society and the Everyday
Social-issue photography, long a backbone of global documentary practice, appears here in works by Jamshid Farajvand Farda, Zahra-Sadat Rad, Shabnam Maleki and others. These images highlight the fragile, persistent ties that bind communities together.
Economies and Environments
Photos in the economic section explore labor and livelihood, while the environmental category brings viewers face-to-face with the ecological challenges confronting Iran—reflected in images by Behzad Amiri, Ali M’aref, Alireza Shah-Hamzeh and more.
Ritual and Belief
A separate collection is devoted to religious traditions and ceremonies, shown through the work of photographers whose images preserve practices passed down through generations.
Photo Series and Multimedia
The festival also showcases eleven photo series, which offer deeper narrative arcs, alongside three documentary and multimedia films chosen by the jury:
“Song of the Earthen Pitcher” by Amirhussein Dehestani Zarch
“Dedicated to Maryam” by Amirhussein Lolaei.