New Zealand photographer Amos Chapple has made three reporting trips to Iran since 2011. He visited areas that he described as "stupendously photogenic" but was more interested in uncovering unfamiliar facets of Iranian society. He said that every foreigner he met was taken aback to find that the real Iran differs greatly from the way it is depicted in the Western media. One of the greatest surprises for Chapple was that although the government continues to incite anti-Western sentiment, he felt nothing but goodwill from ordinary Iranians. (21 PHOTOS)
'Stupendously Photogenic' Iran
- By Amos Chapple
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Two shepherds lead communally-owned sheep out to pasture in Palangan.
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A Kurdish girl in Palangan village. The valley is so steep here that the roofs of many house serve as the yards of the houses above.
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A Kurdish man settles in for a night of guarding roadwork machinery in the mountains near the Iraqi border. The border is rife with smugglers who carry alcohol from Iraq (where alcohol is legal) into the villages on the Iranian side. In Tehran, a can of beer on the black market fetches around $10.
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A man washes a gravestone at the Behesht-e Zahra cemetery in Tehran, dedicated to some 200,000 victims of the Iran-Iraq war. At times, fountains at the cemetery have been filled with red dye to represent the blood of martyrs.
