The story of a Photo

A Thoughtful Portrait of Imam Khomeini in The Last Days of His Presence in Neauphle-le-Château

Jafar Golshan Roghani
Translated by Ruhollah Golmoradi

2021-9-28

From the day it became free to publish Imam Khomeini's photo in Iranian newspapers and publications, and for the first time, Kayhan newspaper published his photo on its front page on august 29, 1979, until victory of the Revolution on February 11, 1979, many photographs of Imam Khomeini were published, which depicted him in various situations and places as leader of the Revolution. Widespread publication of these photos indicates the fact that the revolutionary people and their lovers had a great desire to have a photo of their leader, as until his death on June 3, 1989, there was at least one photo of him in every house; the author remembers well his childhood that in the days lead-up to the revolution, photographs of Imam Khomeini and Ayatollah Taleghani were available in our house, especially, the great 50*70cm photo of Imam Khomeini, in which Imam had leant against a wall covered with wallpaper; a famous photograph that had been most likely taken during his presence in Neauphle-le-Château. In addition to this photo, I should mention the decorative plate in the house that image of Imam Khomeini had been printed in the middle of it and shined on the niche or décor of the house.

Considering importance of recognizing position of photographs in history of the Islamic Revolution and using visual data in historical researches of the Revolution, it is essential to collect and compile for each of the photographs taken during the revolution, especially images of top revolutionaries, events, especially imam Khomeini, Profile ID, such as photographer's name, time and place of the photo. Also, it is necessary to express subject and a narrative that those photographs have been created following it, in order to obtain a large amount of visual data and various analyses about them and to enrich content of historiography of the Revolution.

Published photos of Imam Khomeini are of the most important visual documents of the revolution, that narrative of how they were created should be provided and recorded. Among the large number of photographs published by Imam Khomeini, a portrait of him in the last days of his appearance at Neauphle-le-Château is remarkable, which was made available to the public by Tehran Mosavar Magazine in the third issue of January 26, 1979, and displayed another manifestation of the supreme leader's image.

According to explanation by editorial of the magazine on page 12, the photo was taken on Saturday morning, January 20,1979 in Paris, which of course means imam Khomeini's residence in the village of Neauphle-le-Château on Paris suburb. There is no information about the photographer but given that the late Kaveh Golestan was chief photo editor of the magazine and Mr. Mohammad Sayyad and Massoud Behnoud were respectively photographer and editor in chief of that magazine, these people have known definitely name and identity of the photographer, but they refused to mention it for unknown reasons. Perhaps after more than 40 years since creation of this image, we can acquire information in this regard. This black and white photo has very high quality and shows details of Imam Khomeini's face well; so, in order to achieve such a quality for publication in the magazine, the original negative must be given to the owners of the magazine. Therefore, one can understand that whether a photographer has had mission to take photo on the behalf of the magazine, or the magazine, has bought its negative from the photographer. The photo was beautiful with excellent framing and contrast, and had high standards of portrait photography.

Another point about this photo is that given the ambiguous and blur image of a cleric standing next to the Imam in the photo, it can be concluded that this photo was probably taken while Imam Khomeini walked in the grounds of his residence. Given the continued presence of Ayatollah Eshraghi, Imam Khomeini's son-in-law, in those days, alongside the Imam, and burly body of the blur image of the cleric in the photo, it can be assumed that the cleric is Ayatollah Eshraghi. Of course, this photo is not taken during prayer of the Imam.

Tehran Mosavar magazine's writing at the time of publishing this photo is also interesting, and can show the atmosphere governing the magazine and its editorial that how did they see Imam Khomeini? and what image did they intend to present to their audiences by publishing this photo? This is the writing:

"And now the great man will come back. Hero is always hero. Great is always great. Even if this or that don't like him. Ayatollah Khomeini's name remained in Iran's history, like Mossadegh and Amir Kabir’s names. As the big names remain in the memory of nations. Khomeini, whose name isn’t told without saying Takbir by no one now, has always been great. On Friday morning, the nation will welcome heartily in praise of all those days of resistance and expatriate, and all that magnanimity that exists in leadership of a genuine movement. On Friday, we go the soul which is away from body. He is now spirit of the Iranian Revolution. As human beings who play the smallest roles in this uprising, which was a popular uprising, not the Pentagon prefabricated ones, we welcome heartily and with all our human intimacy. We welcome the great man whom current Iran hope for him and request the lost freedom. Freedom with writing, freedom of expression, freedom so that everyone speaks out and people have the opportunity to choose. It is this desirable transcendence that is meant by Islam, and ayatollah Khomeini will undoubtedly not spare it for us. And this is dignity of great men and it is Khomeini's dignity and the dignity of Iran. Great, name of Iran. In the name of all those who died a martyr and names of all those who think of Iran. They give Iran greatness. and great, your name: Khomeini, a man of magnanimities."