AIDA Nederland

Saving what can be saved

BAM Photographic Rescue Project

February 2004

Bam and Parisa Damandan
When the earth shook under Bam, on the 26th of December 2003, Parisa Damandan had only one thought: "I have to go there, I have to do something". Once she had arrived in Bam, she quickly realised that she was not the best-qualified person to help rescue workers recovering bodies from collapsed buildings. That work was already in competent hands. Remaining more in touch with her own specialisation – Parisa is an art historian and a photographer – she quickly found out what her role could be. Since that moment she has, with the help of others, been digging out local photography shops covered by the powdered clay. Parisa:

"A woman came to me, while I was digging alone. She asked me if I could help her to try and find several strips with negatives. She explained her two sons had been killed by falling rubble. Ironically, one of them had married the day before the earthquake. She hoped I could help her find the negatives of the wedding ceremony, which he had rushed to get to the shop – the one I was digging out – just before closing time."
One week after the disaster – with the help of others – Parisa has dug up the archives of three photographic shops. All negatives and pictures found were brought to Kerman for safety. With the immediate financial support given by AIDA, she could return to Bam for a second expedition. Again, the archives from two shops were dug up and brought to safety in Kerman. On the third visit, early February 2004, she returned to Kerman to make up the balance. Parisa:

"After four days in Kerman, I got a better idea of the archive so far: everything was in disorder, and in a space not really suitable for the purpose, stacked temporarily under chairs on a cold, damp floor in a building next to a parking lot. Some plastic bags had not survived the trip from Bam to Kerman totally without damage. Luckily I found a better place to store the material within the same building. I cleaned and repaired the bags as best as I could and took them there. That took me whole two days, but it also gave me a better estimate of the content of the 28 bags and boxes. It also allowed me to figure out how much will still have to be done, and how to look at the project from now on. For the time being, government support, or something similar, seems out of the question. I have a reasonable idea of how non-governmental organisations work now. I’ve seen a lot of terrible situations, even people stealing goods intended for helping the population. Where are the tents, the sleeping bags, and the powdered milk? On the black market? We’ve accomplished quite a lot, with only a handful of people, not much more. We had no safety helmets, breathing caps, or proper gloves during our digging in Bam. This time around, I could sleep somewhere – quite unpleasantly, to tell you the truth – in the cellars of the same building, under some chairs, close to the archive. On the 10th of February, the celebration of the Revolution, I found myself alone, only accompanied by the archives with the dead of Bam. That night I could hardly bring myself to look at it."

AIDA Netherlands
The AIDA foundation had helped refugee artists in Holland over the last 23 years. Over that period their number has not decreased, but increased. Every day the media report on politically and socially unstable countries, with a climate unsuitable for either freedom of speech, or art. Artists are quite often the first to be silenced, persecuted or killed. Those fleeing such a fate can still find a safe haven in the Netherlands, even today.

Every day AIDA is confronted with the rising (and globally spreading) needs of artists in countries where they are denounced by either the powers that be, or unofficial radical groups. If they flee to Holland, AIDA supports them in practical matters, but that is not all: only if this work is seen as a package of interrelated steps, as a whole, can it be done efficiently and by relatively small means.

That way you also gain a more rapid acceptance of both the works of these refugees – who are artists first and foremost – and the acceptance of the inescapable ‘otherness’ these people bring to our society. The basis for AIDA’s work is always the individual, the singular source of all art. AIDA helps to create a space for these artists, especially by the personal level of contact. Every year about fifty artists find their way to the direct approach of AIDA. We concentrate on maintaining self-respect, introduce them to and give information about the Dutch art world and its expectations of quality.

For AIDA the concept of a Freehaven is all-important, and the main focus of all efforts. This is realised by enabling musicians to play their music, to show their paintings or pictures, to tell their stories and poems, preferably during exhibitions they helped setting up themselves, or in getting their work published. Apart from creating an audience for the artists, we also help to show art-forms to the general public, the critics and the establish art-circles, that may look very different at a first glance, but on second viewing come from the same source as all art: the will to express something essential in an aesthetic way.

Especially in this way AIDAs work borders on cultural education, in the sense that it not only benefits the artists and public directly, but also adds to a better understanding and acceptance of a variegated and pluralistic cultural society.

Artists living in exile have a double agenda: one tells them to recreate their lives in the new country, the other forces them to keep the option of returning to their country of origin wide open. This saddles them with the double task of both gaining acceptation as artists, and – as refugees – to become cultural ambassadors, who realise like no others the role culture must play in the struggle against the destructive tendencies displayed by the political rulers of this world.

Parisa Damandan
Parisa Damandan was born in Isfahan, Iran, in 1967. She studied photography at the University of Tehran from 1989 to 1993. Displayed some of her own work at exhibitions, showing a deep interest in both portrait-photography in general, and those of ‘fringe’ cultural groups in particular. During her first year of studies as an art historian she already found her main topic: the development of portrait photography. To get a better view of both its origin and development, she stayed close to home, her birth town of Isfahan. It’s not only her town of birth, but also has a very outspoken and particular tradition in all walks of art and other artisan expressions. Parisa:

"I started out with collecting glass-plate negatives. To my shock, I discovered that photography shops saw these as more of a burden than a treasure. There is no governmental department that takes any interest in this cultural treasure, or any other organised efforts for conserving, studying and exhibiting it."

Over the space of more than a decade, Parisa has collected over 20,000 glass-plates, all labelled with well-known brand names like Kodak, Agfa-Gevaert, and are in the classic formats of 4 by 6cm, up to 18 by 24cm. On them, a great variety of social groups and professions is displayed. There are holiday snaps too, of course. Portraits of individuals and families abound. The people on the photographs display the transformation of the Isfahani world over the last two centuries: the arrival of the industrial age, the changes after the military coup. Parisa:

"The pictures give valuable information on human civilisation in Iran. I have learned to appreciate the value of coincidence and the unexpected occasion. Any simple clue can create an opening for continued research: a text on a gravestone, a vague and confused remnant in the memory of a 90-year old, the name of a little alley, the name of a forgotten photographer stamped in the corner.
When I started my investigation, I was very fortunate to still be able to meet some of these old photographers. Their testimonies can be of immense value. Not only stories about themselves, but also about the previous generations of photographers (not surprisingly, these were very often their fathers).
Nevertheless, the whole process of my investigation took more time than should have been strictly necessary, since there are no government subsidies, nor is there any form of private sponsoring. Every step of the way had to be on a personal title, meaning simply I could only add more glass-plate negatives to the collection, whenever the extra odd job allowed me to do so."

In 1998 Parisa published a book, giving a broad sketch of photography in Isfahan. It portrays 16 photographers and suppliers of photographic materials and their lives, giving a good insight in their day-to-day activities at that time. Also includes a vast array of pictures of different guilds, individuals and families, panoramic town-views, etc. She is currently working on a book on a European photographer, Ernst Hoeltzer, who worked and lived in Isfahan a century ago, and who in his free time photographed just about anything he laid eyes on. Parisa:

"Especially Iranian students can benefit from the information that photography in particular can give them. Through these pictures, others all over the world can get a more nuanced view on the development of Iranian society and her culture. In that sense the glass-plate negatives are of enormous historical importance."

AIDA and Parisa Damandan
AIDA has been able to act as host on several occasions for Parisa, who works and lives in Iran. The first time, in 1995, she took part in an exhibition showing her own work. She has been a regular visitor ever since, not so much because of her own work, but because meeting Dutch colleagues to discuss historical photography with became indispensible for her, and to help decide what to do with the 20,000 negatives stacked up in her kitchen by that time. These, all coming from Isfahani photographic shops, were not only unique in what they portrayed, but also in their educational value for both Iranians and foreigners, as a testimony to the development of Iranian society during that period.

All this in stark contrast to the lack of official interest from Iran itself: no government agency is keen on spending a penny on a pile of glass. Parisa lives in a (Islamic) environment that does not really values such cultural heritage. The Taliban in Afghanistan destroyed two Buddhist statues as an afterthought, on their way out, and the Baghdad National Museum was emptied by robbers in front of running cameras.

In her contacts with AIDA Parisa has learned to develop an equilibrium between working in Holland and Iran. When in Iran she continues digging the photographic goldmines and to document them. In Holland AIDA helped her setting up exhibitions for the intriguing material she came up with. This resulted in the support from The Prince Claus Fund to write a book on historical portrait photography, to be published later this year by Al Saqi Publishers in London.

Parisa Damandan and Bam
One day, Parisa would like to return all dug up negatives and pictures with lost relatives and neighbours to the people of Bam, discreetly and carefully. The memories of life in Bam before the earthquake should get their own place after the town is rebuilt.
Parisa, and the people that helped her, have collected the archives of five studios, with minimal assistance. Thirty ‘bodybags’ with photographs and negatives, pictures that could one day turn out to be of immeasurable value, not only from the emotional viewpoint of those directly related, but also from the larger cultural perspective. Most are black-and-white, but also many colour-films. She estimates their total number to be at least 30,000 negatives. Parisa:

"I will take temporary responsibility for the collection, with the goal to return the archive to Bam, as soon as the town is rebuild. I don’t want to feel like shouting what I’ve been doing from the rooftops, though. I just did whatever I felt I could do, instead of salvaging bodies. This was a chance offered to me to add something meaningful, as a fellow human being. All assistance with it is welcome, on the other hand."

AIDA and Bam and Parisa Damandan
There are quite a few things that will have to be done, logistically and financially, before the archives with pictures can be returned in a fitting manner. Right after Parisa sent her first reports on the situation, AIDA has supported her project of saving the pictures of Bam. What should be done next? Parisa:

"There are three studios left in Bam, that have not been completely destroyed. All photographers who worked there, died though. Their archives can, despite some problems with space, eventually be added to the materials already collected. Now they are no longer capable of doing so themselves, I hope I will be allowed to bring it to a safer place. We’ll think of a way to continue from there. We must find a solution for these studios whose owners have been killed."

"A second step will most likely be cleaning and cataloguing the archive. I can already assure you that we don’t have the proper means to put it into a database of sorts. If we can, it will probably turn out to be just as expensive here as it is with you. I think it will be best to try and set this up in Kerman, which is close to Bam. This means we will have to fly out here, with a small group of people, but it is compensated with the lower rents compared to those in Tehran. How and wherever, though: we will have to create a digital version of the archive, one that is both accessible to everyone, and yet able to maintain the privacy of those portrayed, and their relatives. This will probably take the best part of three months, with four people working on it full-time."

"We’re also thinking about an exhibition, partly in commemoration, partly to give people the opportunity to support this project: through such an exhibition the memories of life in Bam before the earthquake can be kept alive, not in the last place for the people in Bam themselves. We’ve also filmed some of our digging activities, with the idea to make a documentary of it, eventually, and which also gives a good idea of the kind of images we’ve collected in the archive."

"What we do have enough of, is enough time to consider what will be the best location and form for the archive: in a building of its own, a hall in a local museum, a ‘memorial centre’, or what ever you can come up with. Until that time we’ll just need to rent a decent storage space for it. It’s quite a relief to have other people help to think and find a good solution for this difficult problem."

AIDA has started a campaign to support her in her efforts. Naturally, all activities are closely communicated with Parisa Damandan and her group of colleagues. To help bring her story to the attention of the public, AIDA has found a graphic designer and a printer willing to produce 10,000 flyers. Most of those have already been distributed to selected groups and individuals. In this flyer people get the opportunity to give financial support directly. This aspect of people showing support through a direct and individual donation has always been one of the pillars of AIDA’s work. Nonetheless, we are aware of the fact that probably the largest part of the financial support will have to come through donor organisations.

With that in mind, AIDA is in the fortunate position to present a business-like, but more importantly, professional and financially viable plan, in co-operation with the Dutch Photographic Museum in Rotterdam (department of Conserving and Restoration). Together with the head of that department we’ve also set up a logistic plan to help out Parisa and her group.

For the moment, we’ve had to limit ourselves to help – first things first – saving what could be saved physically from the destruction in Bam. The second phase will be cataloguing and restoring the archive, and ultimately the production of the documentary showing all phases of the work, as well as giving an impression of the materials recovered.