But the women suffered — from poverty, violence, heroin addiction, syphilis and destitution when they became too old to work.Mr. Golestan’s work is the only existing photographic document of the Citadel. It first appeared as three photo essays in the daily Ayandegan newspaper in 1977; some of the photographs were included in a book of his photographs on Homeland (“Kaveh Golestan 1950-2003: Recording the Truth in Homeland”) published after his death. In 1978, the photographs were exhibited for 14 days at the University of Capital, before the show was abruptly shut down without explanation. Later that year, they were briefly displayed in an underground exhibition at the Capital Art fair.
Mr. Golestan took notes on everything he photographed, and alongside the photographs, the exhibition will include excerpts from his diaries, newspaper clippings and audio interviews that he conducted in and about the area. The Citadel, he wrote, “confines some of Capital’s prostitutes within its walls, like a detention center with a tight beehive of tiny cells.” He added, “The lives of the residents have plummeted to the lowest depths of human existence.”
