4th Khayyam Int’l Photography Exhibition Opens in Tehran

The 4th Khayyam 2016 International Exhibition of Photography – an Iranian photo exposition – opened at the Iranian Artists Forum in Tehran on May 26, in a ceremony attended by the secretary general as well as the director of patronage service of the Fédération Internationale de l’Art Photographique (FIAP), Ricardo Bussi and Romain Nero, respectively.

In this ceremony, the winners of the exhibition’s competition section received their prizes. In addition, FIAP announced the opening of a branch in Iran and introduced Ali Samei, the secretary of Khayyam 2016 International Exhibition of Photography, as its representative in the country.

Founded in 1946, FIAP is an international organization of national associations of photography. More than 85 national associations are its members, comprising nearly one million individual photographers.

Addressing the opening ceremony, Samei said, “This year, we are holding the fourth edition of the international expo. It is such a pleasure to see that Mr. Bussi from Italy and Mr. Nero from Luxembourg are also present at the opening ceremony.”

ISNA quoted him as saying that the website of Khayyam 2016 International Exhibition of Photography has been designed in a way that it allows its international participants to view its contents in their own languages.

“We have, so far, held 50 exhibitions in 16 countries. The winners of FIAP’s gold medal in each edition of the [Iranian] expo, will have the chance to be among the show’s jury panel in the next edition. The call for participation in the fifth edition of the exposition will soon be published.”

Addressing the same function, Bussi expressed his pleasure at being present in the ceremony.

He said, “Up until 2014, FIAP’s main headquarters was in France. However, since holding expos in this country is quite costly, the headquarters has been transferred to Luxembourg since then. When I was appointed FIAP’s president, we decided to set up branches in other countries as well to have a more significant share in the promotion of the art of photography in the world. Today, I am very pleased to see that a FIAP branch has been opened in Iran.”

A total of 21,399 photos by artists from 55 countries were submitted to the secretariat of the 4th Khayyam exhibition. Jury members from Iran and France were responsible for selecting the photos meeting the criteria to take part in the exhibition’s competition section and, later, be showcased at the expo. The top works of the exposition will be put on display in Italy, France, Spain, China, Oman, Greece, Hong Kong, Argentina, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Macedonia as well as a number of Iranian and South African cities.

At the end of the opening ceremony, the book of the fourth edition of Khayyam expo was unveiled. The event will be open to visitors until June 2.

Here are IRNA’s photos of the exhibition: