Shirana Shahbazi

I've included below another image that was in the Genius of Photography. This one is by Shirana Shahbazi who photographed in Iran in order to show a developed, forward thinking aspect of the society which was often neglected by western commentators.

The image below was the only scan of this image which I could find online. However, it's considerably darker and more contrasty than the copy in the book and this takes away from some of what I like about the shot.

Irrespective, I love the use of colour in the shot. Most of the other shots I've liked lately have been black and white. This photo is equally geometric and graphical in nature, but this is emphasised (and perhaps dependent on), the subtle use of colour.

Everything in this shot is required in order for it to work, if one element were removed it wouldn't work - including the telephone wires which line through the top of the frame and hold everything in place, keeping the industrial balance with bottom of the frame stopping the blue sky and mountains becoming overly whimsical.

This is undoubtedly one of my favourite photographs that I've seen in a long long time.

Regrettably, I looked for some more of Shahbazi's shots online but couldn't find any others which tried to tackle the same subject matter and were any where near as successful (to my tastes).