Honorable Mention TOKYO-2020 Portfolio / Personal

May I Have This Dance?

  • Photographer
    Shirin Abedi
  • Photo Date
    2019

In 1958 the Iranian national ballet company was established and produced over 50 shows till the revolution. According to the Iranian law, immorality and fornication result from sensual dance, why 1979 all dance facilities got dissolved and dance got banned from the Iranian public. Nevertheless, more and more Iranians are dancing today and try to make this their profession. This story is about the social change in Iran on the basis of a subculture in which dance is elementary to life. By this, the young dancers represent a whole generation, which reclaims its desired future.

Born 1996 in Tehran, Shirin migrated to Germany at the age of seven. Since then, she has lived a parallel existence between two cultures. Her interest in Photojournalism grew during her early teenage years and got more visible after she took her first class in photography in 2011. In 2016 she moved to Tehran for a year to understand her country of origin. She contributed as a freelancer to the BORNA News Agency in Tehran and explored the country with her camera and heart. Shirin works as a freelance photojournalist since 2018.