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  • The streets of Tehran, a city populated by around 8.5 million, are often empty and lonely at night. This body of work was put together to portray a capital at sleep, moving between illusion and reality. All photos in the series were made using the existing light in the streets between 11 pm and 2 am.

  • Two students in the back of a private pickup, returning home after a theatre rehearsal in northern Tehran.
  • During a car drive with friends at night, in the north of Tehran.
  • Tehran
    by night

    Claudia Willmitzer
  • A man from Afghanistan, a refugee and worker at different construction sites around the city centre. A lot of construction in Tehran only takes place at night, when the streets are empty and shops are closed.
  • Bame Tehran (literally, "the rooftop of Tehran") is located in Tajrish, in the very north of the city. At night, the area is popular among young people enjoying the views and local food.
  • A girl on her way home on a bus on Valiasr Street.
  • Street food on sale after the regular shops have closed for the day.
  • A night worker cleaning the streets close to the Imam Khomeini Square, an area that sees many visitors during the day.
  • On a bus driving through Tehran at night
  • Lalezar Street, host to many old and now closed cinemas, was an important place for Iranian and foreign film lovers before the 1979 revolution.
  • On Jomhouri Street, close to the Saadi metro station.
  • Also on Jomhouri Street, near the same metro stop.
  • A man selling masks and illuminated toys at Valiasr Street, Tehran's oldest thoroughfare which divides the city into its eastern and western parts.
  • An apartment in the south of Tehran, close to the Imam Khomeini Square. Tehran's southern parts are among the city's poorest.
    • Photos Claudia Willmitzer
    • Art direction David Habchy
    • Development WebMisc.
    • Created by Mashallah News and KnoozRoom



    Claudia Willmitzer is an international photographer and contemporary artist, born in former East Germany. Her work, which is signified by an intimate relation to her subjects and a focus on the paradoxical norms of societies and their environments, has been exhibited in Germany, USA and Iran.