Paradise Lost: Persia from Above

An exhibition of Georg Gerster's photographs of Iran from the air. In the immediate years before the Iranian revolution in 1979, the Swiss photographer was commissioned by Empress Farah Pahlavi to record the country's topography. Gerster spent more than 300 hours crouched in the back of a twin-engine aircraft, pointing his camera out of a cargo shoot in order to document the vast landscapes of Iran. Subjects include rice fields, architectural sites that reveal ancient civilisations, salt plains, seas and cities.