Whispers of the East (Art Fund Collection of Middle Eastern Photography)

This photograph forms part of the Art Fund Collection of Middle Eastern Photography. This is an Art Fund initiative for the British Museum and V&A and the broad aim is to create a world-class capsule collection of major names and emerging talents in photography from the Middle East (whether living in the region or in diaspora), from 1900 to today. The Art Fund has given the two museums grants over £150,000 for the collection and additional support for the tour of the collection. Tirafkan's work is consciously bound up with Iranian tradition and art. This work offers a contemporary perspective on the arts of the Safavid period. It features a Persian miniature but with the addition of bloodied hands representing the ShiÂ’a martyrdom tradition.