Shadi Ghadirian, from the series 'Qajar'

Shadi Ghadirian
Born Tehran, Iran, 1974. Lives Tehran
From the series 'Qajar'
1998
Gelatin silver print
Museum no. E.351-2010
Art Fund Collection of Middle Eastern Photography at the V&A and the British Museum

Shadi Ghadirian was among the first students to graduate in photography from the Azad University, Tehran. Her work addresses concerns of Iranian women of her generation, exploring ideas such as censorship, religion and modernity, often with a wry humour.

The series 'Qajar' is based on a style of photograph made during Iran’s Qajar period (1786–1925). In those portraits, sitters posed with props representing their aspirations. Here, the sitters wear costumes that approximate Qajar fashion, but the objects they pose with are jarringly modern and western – a mountain bike, a stereo or a can of Pepsi. The contrast makes a comment on the tensions between tradition and modernity that women in Iran face today.

Bahman Jalali, 'Image of Imagination'

Bahman Jalali
Born Tehran, Iran, 1945. Died Tehran, 2010
'Image of Imagination'
2003
C-print
British Museum: 2009, 6036.1
Art Fund Collection of Middle Eastern Photography at the V&A and the British Museum
© Rana Javadi

Jalali was a photographer and teacher who played a leading role in collecting and preserving historical photographs in Iran. He was an influential teacher, mentored many of the younger generation of Iranian photographers, and was instrumental in setting up Tehran’s first Museum of Photography (also known as Akskhaneh Shahr).

In this montage he layered Qajar-period (1786–1925) portraits and an enlarged detail of an old photographic studio sign that had been crossed out with red paint. Jalali speculated that this defacement occurred during the Islamic revolution (1978–9), perhaps as an attack on a studio where unveiled women had been photographed.

Youssef Nabil, detail from 'The Yemeni Sailors of South Shields'

Youssef Nabil
Born Cairo, Egypt, 1972. Lives New York, USA
Detail from 'The Yemeni Sailors of South Shields'
2006
Hand-coloured gelatin silver print
British Museum: 2009, 6037.4
Art Fund Collection of Middle Eastern Photography at the V&A and the British Museum

Youssef Nabil's photographs and films evoke the glamour and melodrama of the golden age of Egyptian cinema in the 1940s and 50s, known as 'Hollywood on the Nile'. This is one of a dozen portraits made as part of a project to document the last surviving Yemeni men to settle as ship-workers in South Shields, in the north of England. The area is home to one of the oldest Muslim communities in the UK. Nabil hand-coloured the black-and-white photographs in the manner of mid 20th-century Egyptian studio portraiture.

Hassan Hajjaj, 'Saida in Green'

Hassan Hajjaj
Born Larache, Morocco, 1961. Lives London, UK, and Marrakesh, Morocco
'Saida in Green'
2000
Digital c-print and tyre frame
Museum no. E.359-2010
Art Fund Collection of Middle Eastern Photography at the V&A and the British Museum

Hajjaj is inspired by fashion photography, while also mocking its methods. He creates playful juxtapositions between global brand names and local motifs such as veils and babouches (traditional Moroccan slippers). The result is an exuberant collision of the stereotypical symbols of western consumerism and Middle Eastern tradition. The frames, which Hajjaj constructs from recycled materials, transform the photographs into three-dimensional, sculptural objects.

Raeda Saadeh, 'Who will make me real?'

Raeda Saadeh
Palestinian. Born Umm al Fahem, 1977. Lives Jerusalem
'Who will make me real?'
2003
Digital c-print
Museum no. E.356-2010
Art Fund Collection of Middle Eastern Photography at the V&A and the British Museum

In her photographs, videos and performances, Raeda Saadeh assumes various roles to explore issues of displacement, gender and identity, with particular reference to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Here the artist lies in a pose that recalls 19th-century European paintings of reclining nudes. These often featured non-European women and 'Orientalist' costumes and scenery. Saadeh is encased in Palestinian newspapers, which conceal her body from neck to ankle while revealing its contours. The covering is both flimsy and apparently immobilising, resembling a papier-mâché body cast. Any sensuality implied by her pose is disrupted by the harsh realities reported in the newspaper.

Taysir Batniji, from the series 'Watchtowers, West Bank/Palestine'

Taysir Batniji
Born Gaza, Palestine, 1966. Lives Paris, France, and Gaza
From the series 'Watchtowers, West Bank/Palestine'
2008
Inkjet prints
Museum nos. E.951-2010, E.952-2010, E.955-2010 & E.960-2010
Art Fund Collection of Middle Eastern Photography at the V&A and the British Museum

Using a variety of media, including painting, sculpture, installation, photography and video, Taysir Batniji makes work that reflects his own experience of travelling between the European art world and Palestine.

The series 'Watchtowers' is inspired by the work of Bernd and Hilla Becher, the German photographers known for their meticulous documentation of industrial architecture. After seeing an exhibition of the Bechers’ work in Paris, Batniji decided to document in a similar way Israeli watchtowers in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. However, as a Gaza-born Palestinian, Batniji was not able to travel to the West Bank to make the pictures. He delegated the task to a local photographer. The photographs superficially resemble the Bechers’ work, but the limitations surrounding their making mean that they lack the same precision and clarity.

Walid Raad, 'Notebook Volume 38: Already Been in a Lake of Fire (Plates 63–64)'

Walid Raad
Born Chbanieh, Lebanon, 1967. Lives Beirut, Lebanon, and New York, USA
'Notebook Volume 38: Already Been in a Lake of Fire (Plates 63–64)'
2003
Inkjet Print
British Museum: 2007, 6033.1
Brooke-Sewell Permanent Fund
Image courtesy Anthony Reynolds Gallery, London

Walid Raad works in photography, video, text, installation and performance. His work came to prominence with his influential project The Atlas Group (1989-2004), a fictional archive of documents relating to the contemporary history of Lebanon. For this major body of work, Raad explored the nature of documentary practice and the representation of political and social conflict. The images shown here are pages from the notebooks of a fictional historian named Dr Fakhouri. This character kept a log of every car that was used as a car bomb during the Lebanese civil war (1975–90).