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In darker places without adequate natural light, Parnes used only a small hand torch for illumination. This gives the images a grainy texture which, in combination with the angles he chooses, partially obscures the former embassy’s magnificence while also revealing that magnificence through individual details – a very deliberate decision. Courtesy Ayyam Gallery -
Parnes’s work explores the connections between the East and West that are very much ingrained in the American culture but are often overlooked, something that he describes as neo-Orientalism. Courtesy Ayyam Gallery -
Although the history is unclear, it is believed that for a brief period between the Iranian Revolution of February 1979 and around April 1980, the Iranian embassy in Washington was controlled by the Khomeini regime. But as soon as the hostage crisis occurred in Tehran, the building was closed to the public – and has remained closed ever since. Courtesy Ayyam Gallery -
Then there is the basement, which he found completely dark and choked with stale air. There he photographed a pile of battered chairs and the detritus of an old office. Courtesy Ayyam Gallery -
An Iranian passport from the time before the Islamic Republic and notes from the conferences at Malta and Yalta from 1945. Courtesy Ayyam Gallery -
Bulging filing cabinets and old papers in the dank basement. Courtesy Ayyam Gallery -
The images reveal a time that has almost been forgotten, a time when the US and Iran had an amicable relationship and when the eastern culture was revered and enjoyed by the stars of both the cultural and political worlds. Indeed, Andy Warhol, Elizabeth Taylor and Gregory Peck all frequented the building in the 1960s and 1970s and Rudolf Nureyev’s birthday party was held there. All those stories remain only in the dust. Courtesy Ayyam Gallery -
Portrait of artist Eric Parnes. Courtesy Eric Parnes
In pictures: a peek into the closed Iranian Embassy, Washington
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