"He was Nasir al-Din Shah, who ruled Iran from 1848 to 1896, and was first exposed to a camera in 1844, at 13. He became so fascinated by photography that in 1858 he invited a French photographer, Francis Carlhian, to set up the first official studio at his palace.
“We were lucky that the king fell in love with photography,” Mr. Jalali said, “because it was the king who started taking pictures. The Islamic clerics could not oppose him.”
Photos were taken of the royal family, including some of the king’s 90 wives and children. The king also initiated documentary photography, requiring that his trips be photographed and sending photographers to take pictures of war and historical sites around the country. He obliged his provincial governors to send him photographs along with their reports.
“Iran is the only Muslim country in the Middle East where photography developed in a natural environment,” said Mohammad Reza Tahmasebpour, a photographer and researcher on the topic. “Because it was supported by the state, different branches of photography flourished.”
The pictures, carefully pasted in satin albums, are now kept in an earthquake-resistant and bulletproof room at Golestan Palace.
The pictures of women challenge the standard idea of harem life, and the wives of the king present a powerful and modern image of themselves. They look confidently into the lens, and unlike women of that time in other pictures taken by foreign photographers, they don’t look flirtatious or shy. Some of the pictures even suggest a friendly relationship among the wives: several show half a dozen of them picnicking.
The photographs also reveal the king’s taste in women: his wives were plump and often had black, bushy eyebrows and dark, thick mustaches. In some photos they showed off their naked abdomens with layers of fat, a pose that suggested that they were rich enough to eat plenty of food."
-Iran’s Giant Shoe Box of Faded Photographs, Full of the Unexpected
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