How I Got That Shot of Ayatollah KhomeiniA photojournalist recalls the tumultuous days of the Iranian revolution.
Posted Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2009, at 10:29 AM ET
On Christmas Day, 1978, photojournalist David Burnett arrived in Iran to cover the unrest that became the Iranian revolution. On one side was Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the nation's West-leaning but authoritarian and unpopular ruler; on the other, a coalition of angry opposition interests from secular leftists to ultra-conservative mullahs. For six weeks, Burnett photographed everything from the shah posing outside his lavish palace to scenes of horrific, sudden violence; massive protests on the streets of Tehran; and intimate moments with Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. In his new book, 44 Days: Iran and the Remaking of the World (preface by Christiane Amanpour; introduction by the New York Times' John Kifner), Burnett collects photographs from that tumultuous period along with diarylike recollections of how he got the shots and got the story out of the country.
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StumbleUponClick here for a slide show about what it was like to photograph the Iranian revolution.
Photographs by David Burnett/Contact Press Images from the book 44 Days: Iran and the Remaking of the World.
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I was born in Tehran during the revolution. My mom is American. She looked at my dad's family who was celebrating when the Khomeini came back to the country and said, "Yeah, now what?" Which was pretty much spot on because things definitely got way worse. We left soon after, my dad not long after that, and my dad didn't get back to visit Tehran until last year. Just another example of how bad an idea religious leaders ruling a country is. Why I couldn't understand the focus of the protests this year. They were close, but misguided.
-- Wayfaerer
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