TMoCA to open foreign photo archive ahead of photography’s bicentenary
By Sadeq Dehqan
Staff writer
The Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art (TMoCA) will display more than 200 photographs from its foreign photo collection to mark the 200th anniversary of the invention of photography, the museum’s director said, presenting a selection of global photographic heritage spanning from 1838 to 1980.
Speaking to Iran Daily, Reza Dabirinejad said the museum had prepared an exhibition titled “This Face Remains” last year, dedicated to its collection of foreign photographs. The exhibition was designed as the museum’s narrative of the world’s photographic heritage, but its opening was delayed for various reasons, including the outbreak of war.
“The exhibition will finally open this year, on the eve of Photography Invention Day (August 19) and to mark the 200th anniversary of photography,” Dabirinejad said. “It will present a selection of works by photographers from different countries around the world.”
He said the collection features works from around 10 countries, with more than 200 photographs dating from 1838 to 1980 on display. The oldest work in the collection is a photograph by Talbot from 1838.
The director added that the exhibition will open on Saturday, August 16, allowing visitors to explore part of the museum’s valuable foreign photography archive, a collection that documents a significant chapter in the history of photography’s development and evolution worldwide.
Six historic photo albums for first time
Dabirinejad also announced that six historic photo albums will be displayed for the first time as part of the exhibition.
“These photographs were taken outside Iran and include images of people of Iranian descent,” he said.
According to the museum director, the works were captured by photographers from Russia, the Ottoman Empire, Japan and France, and date back to the Qajar era and earlier periods.
He described this section of the exhibition as particularly significant from both historical and visual perspectives, saying it provides an opportunity to showcase a collection of historic images of Iran recorded by foreign photographers alongside other works from the museum’s photographic archive.
Permanent gallery planned
The Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art is also pursuing the establishment of a permanent exhibition space to display works from its collection, Dabirinejad said.
He explained that the museum’s exhibitions are currently organized mainly on a rotating and seasonal basis, with new exhibitions held approximately every two to three months on different themes. However, the museum plans to create a permanent section in the future to showcase prominent and valuable works from its archive.
“The necessary follow-ups for establishing this section are underway, and we hope that, with the required conditions, regulations and facilities in place, we can add this permanent gallery to the museum’s offerings this year and keep a selection of works from the collection on continuous display,” he said.
Dabirinejad highlighted the importance of the TMoCA’s collection, describing it as Iran’s most significant museum of modern and contemporary art and one of the country’s most renowned cultural institutions. The museum houses a collection of major works from Iranian and global modern art, with selected pieces periodically brought out of storage for public viewing.
He added that the museum’s rich collection places it among the important repositories of modern art in Iran and the world, making it one of the pioneering institutions for modern art in the Middle East and West Asia. Before its establishment, few museums in the region focused on modern art.
The director noted that the museum preserves works by many leading figures in the history of modern and contemporary art, adding that one of its distinguishing features is that its collection is not limited solely to Iranian contemporary art.
“Unlike many museums in the country, the TMoCA does not rely only on domestic artistic heritage; it also represents part of the modern and contemporary art of the world,” he said.