Mohsen Rastani, photographer of ‘Iranian Family’, dies at 68

IranWire reports the death of Mohsen Rastani, a leading Iranian documentary and social photographer best known for his war pictures and his series "Iranian Family". He died on Sunday, October 25, 2026, aged 68. He had lived in Germany in recent years, where he was treated for an advanced bowel illness, and returned to Iran this summer to continue treatment. Rastani was born in Khorramshahr in the Iranian year 1337 (1958-59), studied photography at the University of Tehran and began his career in the first years of the Iran-Iraq war. He photographed the wars in Bosnia and Armenia, and some of his Bosnia pictures were published in the collection "Hard Time". "Iranian Family", begun in the 1990s, portrays families across Iran against a white backdrop, so that faces, clothing and family bonds are recorded without their surroundings. He once said he would write in his will that the project belongs to the Iranian nation and that anyone able should carry it on. His work was shown at the São Paulo Biennial in 1998, the Venice Biennale in 2003 and the Gwangju Biennale in 2006. He also taught photography and was a founding member of the Iranian Press Photographers Association.