Eighteen Days in Tehran

Hooman is a 17-year-old architecture student at a university in Tehran. He plays the cello and is a good photographer. Hooman is intelligent, curious, and a breath of fresh air—full of hope and stories.

Photo by Abdi Sami.

With a collection of photographs of everyday life in Iran, Abdi Sami hopes to facilitate understanding between the people of the U.S. and Iran.

Sami captures daily life with his camera and accompanies the photographs with his observations: "It is quite exciting to walk the streets of Tehran, to take the metro and buses, and to be curious," he says.  "In Tehran, one witnesses contradictions in everyday life: the opposites of modern versus traditional, religious versus secular. Welcome to Tehran."

To view the photo essay, click here.

Listen to "I Will Greet The Sun Again," a poem written by Iranian poet Forough Farrokhzad and translated and recited by Sholeh Wolpe / sholehwolpe.com .

English. 2 minutes

Persian. 2 minutes

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Photographer Abdi Sami is a film industry veteran and a graduate of the University of Southern California School of Cinema. After working with Rick Steves as Associate Producer on Rick Steves’ Iran for PBS, Abdi created Solh Tours to lead tours of Americans and Westerners to Iran, his country of birth. Contact him at www.solhtours.com.