Illustrations that capture the changing face of Iran

Illustrations that capture the changing face of Iran
Diaspora letters — Historian and artist Beeta Baghoolizadeh shares Diaspora Letters – a collection of digital drawings exploring memory and migration in the Iranian diaspora.

Beeta Baghoolizadeh wasn’t always an artist. A PhD candidate in history at the University of Pennsylvania, she only started doodling on her husband’s iPad after a trip to Iran last summer. “I was really aware of how much everything was changing in Iran, and how the next time it wouldn’t be the same,” she explains. “So I started drawing what I saw.”

Baghoolizadeh decided to capture what she was seeing in a series of digital illustrations, drawing from the country’s everyday street scenes, old family photographs and even postcards. The result was Diaspora Letters – a collection of new media art that captures what it’s like to be an everyday citizen of Iran.

“New buildings are being built, new highways are being built,” the Iranian-American artist explains. “There’s new and there’s old being replenished constantly.”

12 family photo album

The people in Baghoolizadeh’s drawings – who she refers to as “abstracted identities” – are based on real people from her life.

“It just becomes an amalgam of my imagination: specific memories I have and then personal photographs,” she says. “These are all very banal, everyday, mundane things that don’t get circulated in media. They don’t get preserved in archives, they’re too boring for that – and I think there’s a sort of poetry to that boringness.”

13 hafte tir

The mundanity doesn’t just humanise the people in Baghoolizadeh’s drawings, it also draws the viewer into a universal experience of family, home, and belonging.

“I was really overwhelmed by this idea that the next time I returned, it’s not just the landscape of the city that’s changing,” she adds. “It’s my personal landscape as well.”

33 vali asr 3 anar 34 are you done yet 37 more for me

See more of Beeta Baghoolizadeh’s work on Instagram.

Enjoyed this article? Like Huck on Facebook or follow us on Twitter.

Latest on Huck

US Election night 2024 in Texas
Photography

US Election night 2024 in Texas

Photographer Tom “TBow” Bowden travelled to Republican and Democratic watch parties around Houston, capturing their contrasting energies as results began to flow in.

Written by: Isaac Muk

In photos: “Real life is not black and white” – Polaroid x Magnum Open Call winners
Photography

In photos: “Real life is not black and white” – Polaroid x Magnum Open Call winners

See pictures from the competition organised by two titans of contemporary photography, which called upon artists to reject the digitalisation and over-perfectionism of our modern world, technology and image-making.

Written by: Huck

In photos: Rednecks with Paychecks
Photography

In photos: Rednecks with Paychecks

‘American Diesel’ is a new photo series that looks at the people, places and culture behind the stereotypes of rural America.

Written by: Ben Smoke

How do you solve a problem like the music industry?
Culture

How do you solve a problem like the music industry?

Beyond the Music is a conference and grassroots festival bringing together people from across the industry to try and grapple with the biggest issues facing it.

Written by: Ben Smoke

Laura Crane is waving goodbye to sexism in surfing
Outdoors

Laura Crane is waving goodbye to sexism in surfing

The first UK woman to surf the legendary big wave spot Nazarè, Crane is surfing the sea change in the sport and beyond.

Written by: Sam Haddad

Surreal Halloween portraits from 1970s San Francisco
Photography

Surreal Halloween portraits from 1970s San Francisco

Unhinged and otherworldly portraits of All Hallows Eve almost half a century ago form the basis of photographer Ken Werner’s new book ‘Halloween: A Fantasy in Three Acts’.

Written by: Isaac Muk

Sign up to our newsletter

Issue 81: The more than a game issue

Buy it now