Call for Exhibition: Tasvir Archival Project

The Tasvir Archival Project, in partnership with the Northlight Gallery at Arizona State University, is pleased to announce an open call for submissions of contemporary Iranian photographic artworks. This initiative is a step towards creating a foundational archive that will be available to researchers, scholars, critics, and students with an interest in this area. The aim is to launch this archival project and assemble a curated exhibition that showcases the breadth and depth of contemporary Iranian photography.

Archive and Exhibition Submissions

Submitted works will be archived digitally in the Tasvir Archival Project. This archive will serve as an educational resource for scholars, researchers,  curators, professors, and students interested in studying contemporary Iranian photography through research projects and other educational purposes. Permission will be sought from artists for any exhibitions, publications, or usage of their submitted works beyond the archive.

An exhibition will be curated from the received submissions by Mehrdad Mirzaie and Sara Abbaspour, with support from Northlight Gallery curator Liz Allen. This exhibition will create a dynamic dialogue with the Solari collection, one of the largest repositories of historical Middle Eastern photography by Western European photographers such as Francis Frith in the southwest of the USA. 

We invite all emerging and mid-career Iranian photo-based artists to submit their works for inclusion in the archive. The submitted works will be included in The Tasvir project and a juried exhibition will be held at the Northlight Gallery, accompanied by the publication of an exhibition catalog. Artists whose work is selected for the exhibition will be contacted via email to sign the contract and submit high-quality files for preparation and display. Selected artists may choose to either ship their artworks to and from the gallery at their own expense or allow Northlight Gallery at Arizona State University to print and prepare the works in the ASU digital lab at no cost. Following the exhibition, artists have the option to either donate their artworks to the Northlight collection or request their destruction, according to their preference. 

Submission Deadline:

Submissions to the archive: Feb 15, 2024

Important Dates:

Notification of selected artists for the exhibition: March 15, 2024
Acceptance of invitation to exhibition: March 25, 2024
Contract signed: April 10, 2024
Receipt of Digital Files for printing: April 10, 2024

Apply Here: Application Form