Ali Zanjani (Isfahan, 1986) is a Tehran-based artist who creates work using film frames from cinematic, educational and news archives formerly owned by the pre-Revolution National Iranian Broadcasting Company. These films, once popular sources of Western entertainment and reference, were discarded due to their un-Islamic nature and un-Iranian identity. By selecting specific frames and removing them from their original context, Zanjani re-censors images making them permissible in an increasingly censored society.
This series of photographs comes from an archive of ID photos taken in Kia Studio on Bahar Street in Tehran, Iran. Owned and operated by Mr Arbab from 1974 until his death in 2005, the archive was sold off by his family and acquired by Zanjani from a resale shop. After scanning and archiving the images, Zanjani discovered that through the characteristics of the subjects' appearances, the photos revealed the historic events of Iran during their thirty-year span. This series of nine photographs, reveals the reluctance of these soldiers to cut their hair and the photographer's technique to help them by concealing and editing the images using a red marker directly over the negatives. The results were id photographs with acceptable haircuts.