The photographer Abbas’s images of the Iranian revolution have been described as “the memory of the event.” I certainly remember them. Or I remember the event. I remember anyway my parents deciding that we had seen enough of these images on the streets, so they folded up their newspapers and unplugged our television at home. Abbas’s images are the first ones you see upon entering the rather dark space of Light from the Middle East, a photography exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

Read More: Light from the Middle East at the V&A

See also: Light from the Middle East and Familiar Transformed with the Unexpected