Shadi Ghadirian uses photography to challenge the societal norms of her native Iran, particularly with regards to gender. In Untitled (from the Qajar Series) (1998-1999), the artist mimics the conventions of photographs from the nineteenth-century Qajar period, during which women were permitted to be photographed in their homes, often alongside objects of status or prized possessions. The anachronistic inclusion of a 1980s radio and the defiant glare of her subject offer a wry subversion of these traditions. Through such devices, Ghadirian visualises the tensions between history and modernity that pervade the country’s socio-political landscape. The artist has exhibited widely throughout Europe, America, Asia and the Middle East, with works held in collections including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the British Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum, London and the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris.