{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O1810716"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1810716/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2025PJ3792/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2025PJ3792/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"low","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2025PJ3792","copyright":"Amak Mahmoodian","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":null},"record":{"systemNumber":"O1810716","accessionNumber":"PH.3-2026","objectType":"photograph","titles":[{"title":"Untitled, from the series ‘Zanjir’, 2007-2019","type":"assigned by artist"},{"title":"Untitled from the series ‘Zanjir’, 2007-2019","type":"assigned by artist"}],"summaryDescription":"Zanjir (which translates to ‘chain’ in English) is an imagined conversation between artist Mahmoodian and the Persian princess, memoirist, (and early feminist), Taj al-Saltaneh (1883 – 1936). Zanjir combines photographic imagery from the Golestan Palace archives in Tehran with texts from Tajal- Saltaneh’s memoirs and Mahmoodian’s photography and poetry. \r\n\r\nThe Golestan Palace was once home to the rulers of the Qajar dynasty, and their wives and wider family. Its archives contain photographs taken by Nasir al-Din Shah Qajar, the fourth Qajar Shah of Iran who reigned from 1848 to 1896. His monarchy coincided with the arrival of photography in Iran shortly after its invention and the Shah was subsequently an enthusiastic adopter of this new technology. Taj al-Saltaneh was reportedly Nasir al-Din’s favourite daughter. She was the first princess to exit the shadowy world of the traditional harem, the first to replace her hijab with Western clothes, and the first to speak fearlessly for women’s rights in the country (including against her father’s politics), co-founding an underground women’s movement in 1910.\r\n\r\nMahmoodian combines 19th-century Qajar images with photographs of her family taken between 2002 – 2009, before she left Iran for the UK. In speaking out and making works which critique Islamic Republic policy, particularly its treatment of women, Mahmoodian is now exiled.  Zanjir bridges the personal and the political, providing a universal meditation on separation and distance from family and homeland.  ","physicalDescription":"","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Mahmoodian, Amak","id":"AUTH409656"},"association":{"text":"photographer","id":"x43821"},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""},"note":""}],"materials":[{"text":"photographic paper","id":"AAT14190"}],"techniques":[{"text":"bromide process","id":"x32893"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Digital bromide print","categories":[{"text":"Women photographers","id":"THES380381"},{"text":"Photographs","id":"THES48910"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"DOP","id":"THES291628"},"images":["2025PJ3792"],"imageResolution":"low","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"LVLF","id":"THES49656"},"free":"","case":"X","shelf":"969","box":"B"}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"photograph","id":"AAT46300"}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"2007-2019","earliest":"2007-01-01","latest":"2019-12-31"},"association":{"text":"photographed","id":"x30151"},"note":""},{"date":{"text":"2025","earliest":"2025-01-01","latest":"2025-12-31"},"association":{"text":"printed","id":"x46159"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[{"object":{"text":"RPS.657-2022","id":"O1727019"},"association":"Source"}],"creditLine":"Acquired as part of The Parasol Foundation Women in Photography Project","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"150","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"210","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Photograph by Amak Mahmoodian from the series ‘Zanjir’, 2007-2019, printed 2025, digital bromide print, 15 x 21cm.\r","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Zanjir combines photographic imagery from the Golestan Palace archives in Tehran with texts from Tajal- Saltaneh’s memoirs and Mahmoodian’s photography and poetry. Mahmoodian combines 19th-century Qajar images with photographs of her family taken between 2002 – 2009, before she left Iran for the UK.V&A holds an important collection of art from the Qajar period, including photography (the C.R. Smith archive) and one carte de visite of Nasir al-Din Shah Qajar (via  RPS.657-2022)"}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["PH.3-2026"],"accessionNumberNum":"3","accessionNumberPrefix":"PH","accessionYear":2026,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2026-07-07","recordCreationDate":"2025-10-07","availableToBook":false}}