Manoocher's portfolio

People gather inside a saint’s mausoleum in a village on the road between Isfahan and
Shiraz, Iran, on Ashura 1980.

2

Qashqai nomad girls play at a puddle in Fars region, Southwestern Iran, 1978.

3

Worshippers participate in the Ashura ceremonies in Qom, Iran, 1979.

4

Men flagellate themselves at Ashura in Qom 1979.

5

Workers of a glass factory in southern Tehran, 1979.

6

A Kurdish refugee girl sleeps in a wheelbarrow on a construction site near Ardabil in
Northern Iran where her family works, 1980.

7

A mullah follows a woman along a narrow alley in a village near Nain, Iran, 1981.

8

Children look down on a canal in Venice, 1976. I took this photo while I was studying cinema
in Italy at the Rome Film School.

10

A former political prisoner during the regime of the Shah demonstrates how he was tortured
on this torture chair called "Apollo". 1979

11

A man shows a poster depicting Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi as a devil during an Anti-Shah
demonstration, 1980, in front of the U.S. embassy in Tehran where the American hostages were
held.

13

Protestors gather for a demonstration against the Shah in Tehran during Ashura 1978.

15

Demonstrators carry a picture of Ayatollah Khomeini through the streets of the holy city of
Qom during the first Ashura after the Iranian Revolution in September 1979.

17

On the speaker’s stand on Imam Hossein Square in Tehran during a speech on the anniversary
of Ayatollah Khomeini’s exile, stands Ahmad Khomeini, his son. The three portraits show,
from left to right: Ali Akbar Rafsanjani, Khomeini and Hussein Ali Montazeri. 1982

19

A parade of Islamic Revolutionary Guards (Pasdaran) marches over a U.S. flag in Ahwaz, at
the front line of the Iran-Iraq war in 1983.

21

Hostage takers walk around in front of the snowy U.S. embassy in Tehran in which the
hostages were kept, 1980.

23

A female hostage taker guards the roof of the U.S. embassy in Tehran with a machine gun,
1980.

24

Followers of Ayatollah Khomeini sit in front of the U.S. embassy during the hostage crisis.

25

Ayatollah Khalkhali walks near the remains of the U.S. marines killed near Tabas in the
attempt to free the American hostages held in Tehran, in April 1980.

27

Shortly after the outbreak of the Iran-Iraq war, mullahs, in arms, march past Ayatollah
Khomeini’s residence in Jamaran, in May 1980, thus affirming their support for the
revolution.

28

High school students in Tehran practice the manual of arms, trained by the Mujaheddin-e
Khalgh (Mujaheddin of the people), in March 1980.

29

A member of the Hezbollahi (center) stabs an Anti-Khomeini demonstrator in Tehran, 1980.
Thousands of people were killed in the streets all over Iran in 1979 and 1980. After having
taken this picture, I was arrested by Revolutionary Guards, beaten, threatened with
execution, and escaped only by chance.

31

Hojatoleslam Hadi Ghaffari, spiritual leader of the Hezbollahi, leads a demonstration in
Tehran, holding a gun and a hand grenade in his hands. 1980

33

Supporters of Ayatollah Shariat Madari tear up Khomeini’s portrait in Tabriz, 1980. Violent
incidents between partisans of the two Ayatollahs broke out in January 1980 in Tabriz, the
capital of Iranian Azerbaijan, Shariat Madari’s native region. They redoubled intensity
after the execution, on January 12th, of eleven members of the Republican Party of the Muslim
People, which invoked the name of Madari, who was under house arrest in Qom. As an ayatollah
that was politically moderate, he supported the revolutionary movement but soon diverged
from the evolving radical options. In 1982, he was stripped of his title of “Grand
Ayatollah” and “Model for Believers”. He died in 1986.

35

A Peshmarga fighter shows unexploded devices during the siege and bombing of the Kurdish
town of Sanandaj by Islamic revolutionary guards and army in which thousands of Kurds died,
1979.

36

A group of prisoners is executed publicly in Jamshid Street in Tehran, 1980, sentenced to
death by Ayatollah Khalkhali (“The Hangman of the Revolution”). The construction on which
they should be hung up collapsed, so the prisoners were shot dead.

38

Women prisoners in the notorious Evin prison in Tehran. On the third anniversary of the
advent of the Islamic Republic, in February 1982, journalists were shown oppositional
prisoners at Evin prison who were said to have “repented”. A thousand men and women were
thus exhibited at the time of prayer in the prison mosque. They were obliged to sing
religious or revolutionary songs. A political prison of sinister reputation, Evin became the
symbol of all prisons of the Khomeini regime. Thousands of people, oppositionists or
suspected oppositionists, were tortured or executed without the least form of due process.
During this demonstration to the press, in speeches, it was no longer a question of prison
but of “university” or “hospital” and of “re-education” destined to show the “right path” to
these “sick people”.

40

A soldier stands in front of a convoy of tanks driving along the horizon at the front near
Khoramshahr. Occupied since October 1980 by the Iraqis, Khoramshahr became the objective of
a major Iranian offensive, dubbed “Jerusalem”. On both sides, it became one of the bloodiest
battles of the war (50,000 dead in the first few days). Launched 29-30th April 1982, it ended
May 23rd by the reconquest of the city by Iran.

42

A group of mullahs, sent especially to the front in Shalamsheh, on the Iranian side of the
Iran-Iraq border near Abadan, by Ayatollah Khomeini, observes the oil port of Faw in Iraq
burning in 1983.

44

A young boy wearing a combat volunteer’s uniform holds a gun during a parade of female
basijis in Tehran, December 1983. The white band around his head is an invocation of
Ayatollah Khomeini. (World Press Photo 1st prize 1983, category news)

45

Boys sing a revolutionary song on the tribune during a celebration for the 1982 anniversary
of Ayatollah Khomeini's rebellion against the Shah. The posters show the late Ayatollah Dr.
Seyyed Mohammad Hosseini Beheshti (left), founder of the Islamic Republican Party who was
assassinated in 1981, and Grand Ayatollah Hossein-Ali Montazeri.

46

Young basijis ("volunteers") march through Tehran in April 1984 before departing to the
front line of Iran-Iraq war. Many of them died in war. Behind them is a portrait of
Ayatollah Beheshti.

48

Young basijis are put into action at the Iran-Iraq front.

50

Young Iranian soldiers at the front near Khoramshahr, 1982.

52

An Iranian child soldier is in charge of collecting mines along the Iran-Iraq border.

54

Wounded Iranian soldiers near Khoramshahr wait to be evacuated to hospital, April 1982.

56

This situation during the battle of Khoramshahr has always reminded me of the battle of
Kerbela the way the story had always been told to us as children.

58

A mullah holds the drip bottle for one of the many soldiers injured in the battle of
Khoramshahr.

59

On a wall in Khoramshahr, a portrait of Ayatollah Khomeini almost disappears under the
impact of bullet and shrapnel. Khoramshahr was occupied for two years by Iraq before being
retaken by Iran in May 1982. Baptized the “bloody city”, it was completely destroyed.

60

An Iraqi officer, in underwear, goes into captivity as a prisoner of war, November 1981.

62

Iraqi prisoners of war are forced to pray with a portrait of Khomeini in the military base
of Parandak, 50 km from Tehran, in spring 1982. After the battle of Desfuz, during the
victorious offensive aimed at recovering the city of Khoramshahr, about 15,000 Iraqi
prisoners from all the prison camps of the country were assembled and shown to the press.
Although they were members of the Sunni branch of Islam, they were subjected to “re-
education” in Shia Islam beliefs and practices.

64

The bodies of Iranian soldiers lie dead a few seconds after the explosion of a shell in
their trench at the Iran-Iraq front, September 1982.

66

An Iranian soldier hangs dead inside his tank.

68

A bulldozer buries the bodies of Iraqi soldiers inside a mass grave near Khoramshahr, 1982.

70

Behind the front line, weapons, shoes and uniforms of dead or wounded soldiers pile up.

72

A woman moans and weeps during the funeral of a war victim on the cemetery in Ahwaz,
Southwestern Iran, in April 1981. More than one million people died in the war.

74

In Tehran’s biggest cemetery, Behesht-e-Zahra, a fountain of water colored red, a symbol of
martyrs, was installed.

76

Women gather for the burial of war victims.

78

A child sleeps near the Iran-Iraq front.

80

Actors dressed as Iranian soldiers re-enact the battle of Majnun Island at the metro
construction site in Tehran, Iran, 1984. Several actors died during the performance.

82

War veterans celebrate the anniversary of the Iranian Revolution in Azadi Square in Tehran,
1983.

84

Kurdish Peshmargas take me with them in their pick-up in Iranian Kurdistan, 1979. I had
marked my hand with what I believed to be my blood group: it was incorrect, and fortunately
I was not wounded.

86

I left Iran in 1985, just for a short while – or so I thought. But I remained exiled from my
home country until the present day.

87

Members of the first group of Afghan Mujaheddin, Jamiyat Islamiyya, dance before going to
the front line against the Soviet army in 1980.

89

Fighters of the Mujaheddin group Jamiyat Islamiyya ride towards battle near Herat,
Afghanistan, 1980.

91

Trainees exercise in Jante Hezbollah training camp in Bekaa valley, Lebanon, during the
civil war in 1981.

93

A trainee marks the victory sign in Jante Hezbollah training camp in Bekaa valley, 1981.

95

Isa, an ex-marine from U.S. Special Forces who converted to Islam and came to Lebanon to
train Shia fighters, demonstrates the use of fire arms in a position around Beirut, 1981. He
later went to Iran where he was arrested for unclear reasons.

96

An Amal woman fighter, and my guide, fires a machine gun from a position at the Lebanese-
Israeli border, 1981.

98

A mother in Beirut holds the picture of her killed son, 1981.

99

A Palestinian girl in Rashidiya refugee camp in Lebanon peaks through a window, 1981.

101

An elderly royalist woman protests in front of British riot police during clashes between
members of the Orange Order and security forces in Northern Ireland 1986. This photo was the
last frame I shot before I was wounded by a stone thrown by one of the demonstrators.

103

San Salvador Cathedral, El Salvador, during the time of the offensive by FMLN Guerillas in
November 1989.

106

Workers line up to deliver coffee during harvest season in Costa Rica in January 1989.

107

A Maya boy carries goods to the market in the Guatemalan highlands in December 1990.

109

A family of street performers dances on glass shards in Honduras as residents crowd around
to watch their performance in September 1988.

111

Night scene in the closed market of Managua, Nicaragua. Street children live in gangs in the
streets or in abandoned buildings. These photos were taken while shooting of a documentary
film, "Casita", about the subject in 2000.

113

Mono (“monkey”), a 15-year old gang member, shows his tattooed body.

115

A gang member carries her jar of glue for sniffing which the street kids always keep with
them to stand their harsh day.

117

Pregnant Mercedes looks into her mirror while waiting for clients at Cathedral Square in
Managua.

119

A member of the street gang poses in the dark.

121

A street boy romps around in Managua’s East Market.

123

U.S. troops take position after landing in Santiago, north of Panama City, to take a
Panamanian military base, December 21st, 1989. I was one of the first photojournalists to
arrive in Panama during the U.S. invasion, as all flights had been cancelled, but I crossed
the border by car from Costa Rica where I was living.

125

Supporters of President Daniel Ortega sit on a billboard depicting Ortega and reading: "We
win and everything will be better", in Managua, during the election campaign in February
1990.

127

Families of Contra fighters and refugees from Nicaragua gather in Yamales Camp in Honduras.

129

Pedestrians pass by an electoral mural in Guatemala City during the Campaign rally of
Guatemala presidential elections in November 1990.

131

Costa Rican school girls in their school uniforms lay down on the streets in San José to
protest against traffic accidents since many children had been killed in the streets by
accidents.

133

A boy rides his bike through the shore waters of flooded Managua Lake after Hurricane Joan
crossed the country on October 22nd, 1989.

135

Anti-person and anti-tank mines are laid out in the desert in Kuwait by withdrawing Iraqi
forces, along with the corps of a soldier.

138

The U.S.S. George Washington passes the Suez Canal on its way to the Persian Gulf.

140

Afghan Mujaheddin fighters sit on top of a bunker at the beach near Kuwait City, in March
1991. Afghanistan’s Mujaheddin sent some 300 people as part of the multinational coalition
force.

142

U.S. soldiers dry their laundry on a shattered Iraqi MIG-22 at Nasiriya air base in Iraq,
300 km south of Baghdad, in March 1991.

144

U.S. marines in the Iraqi desert take a break on top of their tank in March 1991.

146

U.S. President Bill Clinton holds a speech at Liberty Bridge in Kuwait on October 28th, 1994,
during a brief stopover to visit U.S. soldiers stationed in Kuwait.

148

A Kuwaiti boy waves a US flag in Kuwait City to celebrate the first anniversary of the
liberation of Kuwait from Iraqi occupation, on February 26th, 1992.

150

Oil well fire fighters approach a burning oil well for capping in Al Ahmadi, March 29th,
1991.

152

Traditional dancers and musicians perform at the celebration of extinguishing the last oil
well set ablaze by the Iraqi forces, in Al Ahmadi, nine months after the withdrawal of Iraqi
troops from Kuwait.

154

Two Shia Iraqis sit around in a refugee camp in northern Kuwait, 10 km south of the Iraqi
border, where several hundreds of people fleeing the civil war sought refuge, in March 1991.

156

U.S. marines arrest and expel me from Kuwait at the Iraqi border in 1991. (Photo: Abbas)

158

Cafe Fishawi in downtown Cairo, a favorite place for the late Nobel-laureate writer Naguib
Mahfouz.

160

Young men watch a companion who cools himself down in sweltering Cairo by jumping into Nile
River.

162

Inhabitants of Muhandiseen district in Cairo pray at Eid al-Fitr, marking the end of Ramadan
on March 2nd, 1995.

164

Members of the Egyptian Muslim extremist movement Jama'a Islamiyya are taken to Heakstep
Military Court near Cairo on October 20th, 1993.

166

Egyptian policemen rebuff me in Cairo, after an assassination attempt on the Egyptian Prime
Minister in 1993.

168

I was taken out of Mogadishu by a US military plane going to Cairo. When arriving at the
military airport in Cairo the passport control was very surprised to see the holder of an
Iranian passport traveling from Somalia with the US army. They decided that I must be very
important, saluted and sent a limousine to take me from the airport.

169

Bosnian children play war during the siege of Sarajevo in 1992 in which about 400,000
residents were trapped and cut off from all basic supplies. Thousands of civilians were
killed and wounded, suffered from rape and starvation.

171

The old library of Sarajevo, once containing a huge collection of old and precious books and
documents, was destroyed completely on August 26th, 1992, deliberately targeted by Serbian
militia. The entire day small burned paper fragments filled the air of Sarajevo.

172

A young boy relieves himself next to a US marine in full armor in Mogadishu, Somalia, during
the US operation in 1993.

173

Students of the Quranic University for women in Umm Durman, the sister city of Khartoum on
the other bank of the Nile in Sudan, follow a lecture, 1993. After graduation they work as
school teachers.

174

A student of Sayma Dayma Quranic School in Umm Durman is chained around his legs as
punishment. The traditional Quranic school is one of the oldest and most famous in Africa.
The approximately 200 students, all boys, begin as early as five years old. They sleep in
common rooms on the floor. Classes begin at 4.30 am after morning prayer and go on till late
afternoon.

176

Boys parade as soldiers of the Militia of Popular Defense (Army of Prophet Muhammad). Armed
forces demonstrate weapons and tactics during a parade in Khartoum, organized for
participants of the Islamic Conference in December 1993.

177

A girl pumps water in Jabal-Aula refugee camp, situated some 50 km from Khartoum, in
February 1993.

179

Sudanese citizens swear on the Quran to be loyal to President Omar al-Bashir, on his visit
to Al-Delenj in Southern Kurdofan state in December 1993.

180

Muammar Ghaddafi holds a press conference on November 3rd, 1994, in front of the ruins of his
palace in Tripoli, Libya, which was bombed and destroyed by American air force. His son was
killed by the bombing.

182

A military parade in Tripoli celebrates the 25th anniversary of Muammar Ghaddafi’s takeover
of power from King Idris in 1969.

184

One of the first people I met when moving to Jerusalem was one of my class mates from
Tehran. He had opened a sandwich bar next to my office in downtown Jerusalem. By the way,
Moshe Katzav and Mahmud Ahmedinejad also visited the same school in Iran.

While I was recovering from my Ramallah injury in the military hospital Hôtel des Invalides
in Paris the patients were visited by Jacques Chirac on Armistice Day. When talking to me he
asked me if I needed anything. Dizzy from all the medicine as I was I first said no but as
he was walking away I got an idea. “Monsieur le Président”, I called him back, telling him
that my Iranian citizenship causes problems in some countries. “What, you don’t have a
French passport yet?” he replied. And so, within a couple of weeks I had the French
citizenship “by honor”.

After having recovered from my gunshot injury from Ramallah, and after having spent 18
months in hospital from which 12 months in wheelchair, I took up traveling again. Four years
after that incident, I went with French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin to Palestine, and
finally also again to Ramallah where he was welcomed with a rain of stones by angry
students. He escaped in an armored car – which in the messy situation rolled over my
recently recovered leg. I was taken to the same hospital and treated by the same nurses and
doctors who first thought I was involved in shooting a documentary about the old incident.

185

An elderly Palestinian from Jerusalem kisses his only source of income, a camel on the Mount
of Olives where tourists usually come to have a look on the Old City of Jerusalem, and
eventually for a few dollars take a ride on the camel's back.

187

A worshipper prays by the Western Wall in Jerusalem in January 1996.

189

A girl stands at Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, 1994.

191

The Armenian Patriarch of Jerusalem Torkom Manougian heads the Palm Sunday ceremony in Holy
Sepulchre Church in Jerusalem's Old City, 1996.

193

Ethiopian pilgrims carry a cross re-enacting Christ's passion on Jerusalem's Via Dolorosa on
Orthodox Good Friday 1996.

195

Ultra-Orthodox Jewish men walk in Mea Shearim, the Ultra-Orthodox neighborhood of Jerusalem.

197

Thousands of Ultra-Orthodox Jewish men gather in Mea Shearim on May 28th, 1996 to support the
boycott of the May 29th Israeli general elections. They are members of an Ultra-Orthodox
movement that rejects the State of Israel.

199

Ultra-Orthodox Jewish men carefully examine the plants needed for Sukkoth feast before
purchasing. The inhabitants of Mea Shearim prepare for the one-week feast of Sukkoth in
October 1995, which commemorates the Jew's Biblical exodus from Egypt.

201

A boy poses on a box with live chicken during preparations for Yom Kippur 1996 in Mea
Shearim.

203

An Ultra-Orthodox Jewish family, the children in costumes, walk in Mea Shearim on the day of
Purim, March 3rd, 1996. Purim remembers the rescue of the Jews from Haman's plot to kill them
some 2000 years ago.

205

An Ultra-Orthodox Jewish man with painted face walks in Mea Shearim on Purim 1996.

207

Boys in military uniforms pose together with a girl dressed as a bride in Mea Shearim on
Purim Day 1996.

209

Ultra-Orthodox Jews gather in Mea Shearim on May 28th, 1996, to boycott Israeli general
elections.

211

Young men and boys demonstrate against a Supreme Court decision not to close a main street
running through Bar Ilan neighborhood in Jerusalem during Shabbat and Jewish holidays on
August 17th, 1996.

212

The Greek Patriarch of Jerusalem, Diodoros I, blesses believers with Jordan water to
celebrate Epiphany. Jordan River here passes by the ruins of Allanby Bridge, destroyed
during the Six-day War.

213

Palestinian children watch a Palestinian strike in the West Bank to commemorate the 95th
month of the Intifada on November 9th, 1995.

214

Palestinian children cool off in a pedestrian pool by the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem
in July 1996. A heat wave has raised temperature to almost 40° C.

216

Israeli soldiers armed with M-16 rifles and sticks patrol the alleyways of Old Jerusalem on
August 30th, 1995. Palestinians could not follow an appeal by Yassir Arafat to pray in Al
Aqsa Mosque in protest over Israeli rightwing government policies because of Israeli
security restrictions.

218

A Palestinian woman is arrested by Israeli security forces for having entered Israel from
Gaza illegally. She went to Jerusalem to sell her vegetables. Israeli security forces are on
maximum alert prior to the Sharm el-Sheikh anti-terrorist summit on March 13th, 1996.

220

A Palestinian school girl stands in front of her school in Hebron where Jewish settlers have
dumped their garbage, including used diapers and other unpleasant things, in September 1995.

222

Gaza beach, July 1996.

224

A Palestinian boy throws a stone against Israeli military forces in Hebron on September 24th,
1995.

226

Photographers line up to take pictures of a Palestinian boy throwing a stone at Israeli
soldiers in Hebron.

228

Followers of Hamas gather in Gaza, 1995.

230

Hamas extremists volunteering for suicide attacks pose in Gaza, 1995.

232

Yassir Arafat is carried on shoulders after he crossed the Rafah border point, entering the
newly self-ruled Gaza strip for the first time in 27 years on July 1st, 1994.

234

Young Palestinians, who have helped evacuating the wounded, throw a stone covered with a
Palestinian's blood to Israeli troops which are shooting at demonstrators in Ramallah
protesting against the opening of the tunnel under the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, September
26th, 1996. The same day, also I was shot by an Israeli sniper.

236

An Israeli soldier aims at a target in Nablus, Palestine, 1995.

238

I was shot down by an Israeli soldier in Ramallah, West Bank, on September 26th 1996. I got
seriously wounded and spent the following 18 months recovering in the military hospital
Hôtel des Invalides in Paris. (Photo: Jim Hollander)

240

Young French UN Blue Helmet veterans from former Yugoslavia are dressed in gala uniforms for
celebrating Armistice Day, November 11th, 1996, in the military hospital Hôtel des Invalides
in Paris. I shot a series about French war veterans in the hospital while recovering from my
injuries from Ramallah.

242

A French World War I veteran shows a photo of himself in a war scene dating from 1917.

244

A parachute veteran with his wife in the military hospital Hôtel des Invalides in Paris.

246

Despite being civilian and Muslim, I take part in the yearly military pilgrimage to Lourdes
in 1997, organized from the military hospital Hôtel des Invalides. (Self portrait)

247

The Eiffel Tower in Paris in its millennium decoration, 2000.

249

Dummy of a maintenance worker on Eiffel Tower.

251

The Eiffel Tower reflects on the wet asphalt where miniature versions of the tower are
displayed for sale.

253

Oil towers and horse heads reflect in a puddle on Abseron Peninsula near Baku, Azerbaijan,
1998.

255

An office of the journalism faculty at Baku University, Azerbaijan, 1998.

257

Algerian presidential candidate Abdelaziz Bouteflika addresses supporters in Adrar, 1,400 km
south of Algiers, April 9th, 1999.

259

An Afghan man looks at cartoons through a slide viewer in Kabul, 2003.

260

Fardin, a street photographer and later one of the students at AINA photojournalism
institute in Kabul, took this portrait of me with a box camera in 2002.

261

Only a ruin is left of this house in Kabul after endless years of war in Afghanistan.

263

Refugees returned to Kabul from Pakistan after the fall of Taliban.

265

Women ride a horse-cart taxi in Kunduz, Afghanistan, 2002.

267

A taxi drives passengers to Kunduz in 2002.

269

A boy stands on a road in Badakhshan Province, Afghanistan, 2002.

270

A woman lifts her veil while bringing her son to school in Kabul for the first time after
the fall of Taliban in 2002.

271

Men beat themselves at Ashura ceremony in Kabul, March 14th, 2003.

273

An Afghan boy shows the sharp blades and chains with which men beat their backs to blood on
Ashura.

274

Students at AINA Photojournalism Institute in Kabul train photography using box cameras.

276

A photo exhibition at AINA Afghan Culture and Media Center marks the first anniversary of
AINA Photojournalism Institute in 2003, presenting the students’ photos.

278

A villager from Badakhshan votes for the first time in his life at the Loya Jirga elections
in 2002. I spent two months as UN monitor in this area where 21,000 villagers were chosen,
village-by-village, to the time the pool was narrowed down to 1,500 elected delegates who
made their journey to Kabul. There they gathered for nine days, and after much debate,
ultimately in early June 2002 fostered the election of President Hamid Karzai and the
establishment of the Transitional Authority.

279

A woman in Faizabad, the capital of Badakhshan region, having thrown open her burqa, gives
her vote at the Loya Jirga elections.

280

Inhabitants of a village in Badakhshan, Afghanistan, line up to welcome me arriving in a UN
helicopter for the Loya Jirga elections, 2002.

282

A boy in Badakhshan Province, Afghanistan, leans against the wind produced by the
helicopter.

284

A man crosses a river in Badakhshan Province on an improvised cable railway, 2003.

286

A young man pushes his heavily loaded wheelbarrow through deep mud at a vegetable market in
Kabul, 2002.

288

The head of one of the two basalt statues which guarded the entrance of the ancient,
subterranean tomb of the kings of Qatna in Syria discovered in December 2002. The statues
date from ca. 18th century B.C.

289

It was in this royal tomb, 18 meter deep under the ground, that I met my wife Ursula, an
archaeologist, here documenting the exact position of jewellery spread around the
sarcophagus. The archaeologists wear helmets, masks and gloves against the dangers of
falling rock pieces and fungi.

291

The semi-nomadic inhabitants of this summer village called Belli Yayla near the famous site of
Nemrut Dag in Turkey spend their summer 2005 with the animals in a prehistoric way of life: no
electricity, no running water, and the architecture of the stone houses reflects ancient
predecessors.

293

Ladders lead up the multiple stories of a rural village near Nemrut Dag, Southeastern
Turkey, 2004.

295

Only the minaret peaks out from the submerged mosque of Savasan village which has been
flooded by the waters of Birecik reservoir damming up the Euphrates in Southeastern Turkey.
It is now, in 2004, inhabited only by two families. Many villages have been destroyed by dam
projects; its inhabitants forced to settle elsewhere or move into the suburbs of the big
cities.

297

Girls study the Quran in Sultan İsa Medrese in Mardin, Southeastern Turkey. 2004 was the
first year Quranic lessons here had been permitted again by the Turkish government.

299

Jebel Barkal pyramids in Northern Sudan at dusk, March 2005. The pyramids are part of the
royal cemetery of Napata, the capital of the Kushite kings in the 1st millennium BC.

301

A camel caravan travels from Darfur to Egypt for sale, near the 3rd Nile cataract in Sudan,
March 2005. The road is called Tariq al-Arba’in, meaning Road of the Forty, because it takes
approximately 40 days to travel.

303

Pyramid in Jebel Barkal. Unlike Egyptian pyramids which were built to hide the burial
chamber, the Napatan ones are epitaphs for the deceased, who are buried in a hypogeum
underneath.

305

A Nubian village with typically painted houses at the 4th Nile cataract in Sudan, March
2005. The villagers are displaced by the newly constructed Merowe Dam, and are resettled in
ready-built concrete settlements in the middle of desert.

307

Portrait of a Nubian girl in a village at the 4th Nile cataract.

308

Portrait of an old Nubian villager whose shadow forms the shape of a pharaoh. The Nubian
“Black Pharaohs” from what is today Northern Sudan ruled over Ancient Egypt as the 25th
Dynasty between 720 and 664 BC.

310

Night commuters gather in a night shelter in a hospital in Northern Uganda in August 2006.
The boys seek refuge from the Lord’s Resistance Army, abducting children from the villages
to join their militia group as child soldiers.

312

A refugee woman in Northern Uganda builds her new house, August 2006. After 20 years of
civil war causing ten thousands of dead, mutilated and refugees, an agreement of the Ugandan
government with the Lord’s Resistance Army gives hope for peace and stability.

314

Women wash clothes by their flooded home in Southern Somalia, December 2006.

316

Children play in the flooded streets of their village in Southern Somalia, December 2006.

318

A wounded Iranian soldier near Shalamsheh, Khoramshahr, Southwestern Iran, waits to be
evacuated to hospital, April 1982.

322

A drugged street boy lies on the market in Managua, Nicaragua, 2000.

324

Portrait of a man in a village in Dasht-e Kavir Desert, Iran, 1981.

325

An Afghan man takes part in a WFP (World Food Program) Food for Work project in Hazrate
Sultan in Badakhshan, cleaning an irrigation channel from mud, 2003.

326

An Egyptian pilgrim arrives with a TV set from Saudi Arabia to Suez port along with
thousands of other Egyptians who return home after performing the pilgrimage to Mecca in
1992.

327

A Palestinian man carries a refrigerator up the long steps in the Old City of Jerusalem,
October 1995. And a Palestinian worker carries a toilet passing Erez crossing point to Gaza
Strip from Israel, February 8th, 1996.

328

A Sudanese woman poses in a photo studio in Khartoum, 1993.

330

A street photographer works with his old-style box-camera in Kabul, 2003.

332

Adriano Sofri, leader of the Italian extreme-left extra-parliamentarian movement Lotta
Continua (“continuous struggle”), visits Iran together with his wife in 1980.

334

Portrait of Adriano Sofri in prison in Pisa, Italy. Adriano Sofri has been sentenced to 22
years of prison in January 1997, for the murder of Luigi Calabresi, a police officer in May
1972. The trial has widely been regarded as a farce; the only evidence against Sofri was a
single confession of a man regarded unreliable by many. After serious illness he has been
released in 2006.

336

People wait in a line to ascend the Eiffel Tower in Paris, the most frequently visited
tourist destination in the world.

338

Iraqi refugees queue for food and water in this camp near Safwan, run by the US military, in
April 1991. More than 6000 refugees are sheltered in the Kuwaiti desert near the Iraqi
border.

340

Manoocher's portfolio

More Related Content

Similar to Manoocher's portfolio (20)

Manoocher's portfolio