Booth Event – Book Signing: Newsha Tavakolian

Newsha Tavakolian’s newest publication “And They Laughed at Me” brings together works made between 1995–2001 and 2017–2019, spanning more than two decades of photographic practice. Turning inward, Magnum photographer Tavakolian revisits her archive to recover what she calls her »eyesore« photographs—early, imperfect works made when she began her career as a photojournalist in Tehran at the age of sixteen. Through this deliberate excavation of failure, Tavakolian reflects on the relationship between memory, politics, and personal growth. Revisiting contact sheets, broken negatives, and overlooked snapshots, she confronts not only her artistic beginnings but the emotional landscape of a generation shaped by reformist hope, political restriction, and repeated disappointment.

»What started like drops hollowing out a stone, went from waves into a tsunami. Like the girl smelling a rose, we want to live.« —Newsha Tavakolian

Book signing by Newsha Tavakolian presented by Kehrer Verlag