Item Tag: Original

His padded carrying board – the essential tool of the bazaar porter’s trade – leans against him, capturing a way of working life in Persia during the early Pahlavi era. Handwritten in pencil on the back: “x62 / Porter (barbar) in Tehran Bazaar 1920s / Lockhart”.

The Iran this boy inhabited was itself on the cusp of dramatic transformation: Reza Shah Pahlavi, crowned in 1925, launched sweeping modernization campaigns that within a decade banned traditional dress like the kolah cap seen here, built the Trans-Iranian Railway, and pulled village Iran into a centralized modern state.