Cast out of heaven

Iranian photographer Hashem Shakeri’s series ‘Cast Out of Heaven’ examines the urban developments that exist as a network of satellite cities surrounding the Iranian capital of Tehran. There are some who may refer to these areas as ghost towns, others who consider them examples of an unkept promise of paradise. The residents of these places exist in a state of near-exile as a result of the lacking infrastructure required to bring a city to life. Throughout ‘Cast Out of Heaven’, Shakeri depicts these places as eerie, empty, and yet strangely beautiful. His photographs of residential towers and empty streets are framed by the vast emptiness of Iran’s desert landscape. For various reasons, including high economic corruption, economic rent, loot, sanctions and the implementation of neoliberal economic policies that have helped to spur an economic downturn in the country, the occupants of these cities struggle with hours-long commutes, a lack of educational and healthcare resources, and lives that have little prospects of improving. What began as a massive national affordable housing project has so far resulted in a further crippling in the quality of life for those who have no other choice but to live in these cities. In this interview for LensCulture, Gregory Eddi Jones speaks to Hashem Shakeri about his early beginnings in photography, the theme of exile that runs through his work and the entangled relationship between humans and their surroundings. For various reasons, including high economic corruption, economic rent, loot, sanctions, the implementation of neoliberal economic policies and the subsequent drastic drop in the value of the Iranian currency are fueling skyrocketing housing prices in Iran. This is forcing many Tehraners to leave the capital without any intention of coming back ever again. Under the present circumstances, tenants are looking to move to satellite towns to cut down on accommodation costs. The Mehr Housing Project initiated in 2007 as the largest state-funded housing project in the history of Iran. What followed was rapid urban population growth and the construction of new towns. However, sufficient measures were not taken to ensure healthy living conditions for those who came to inhabit these new towns. Suffering critical shortcomings are Parand, Pardis and Hashtgerd, three newly-constructed towns on the margins of Tehran. These are huge islands of soaring skyscrapers and indiscriminately developed apartments filled with crowds of people and cars. They begin but seem to have no end. 

Besides the huge population of Tehraners, people from all over Iran are migrating to these new towns. These are notorious for social pathologies, like high rates of suicide among pupils and drug abuse. The residents of Parand talk about how the town’s population has doubled over the past six months, reaching 200,000. Yet, the town can hardly provide educational, social and health care services for 10,000. Sleep-deprived newcomers leave early in the morning to get to their workplaces in the capital over daily commuting distances of 2-3 hours. The relentless repetition of this timeless cycle makes them more alienated and more frustrated day by day. And that is not all. A great part of the population is on the verge of alienation and frustration but for a quite contrasting reason: escalating unemployment. Here is the land of those cast out of their heaven – the metropolitan Tehran. And they all share the bitterness of the fall. ‘Cast out of Heaven’ is part of a larger trilogy about the three contemporary social issues of the community of Iran. This trilogy deals with exile, isolation, self-alienation and social exclusion of a few groups of people in the society of Iran these days. 

Hashem Shakeri