It is registered in the United Kingdom as a limited company and owned by Hengameh Golestan, the photographer’s widow.

Vali Mahlouji acts as agent and curator to the estate since its formation and is responsible for the preservation, conservation, curatorial research, promotion and management of the estate.

The estate is supported through donations and fundraising. Limited funds are raised by the estate through the sale of a very limited number of stamped editions.

Conservation and digitisation of the historical archive is the estate’s central mission. The archive constitutes one of the most significant visual documents of the social, cultural and political history of Iran during the second half of the twentieth century, most of which has remained unseen to date.

All Kaveh Golestan’s work is copyright © Kaveh Golestan Estate. It may not be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or copied without prior consent.

Besides numerous socially motivated projects such as Prostitute, Worker, Asylum created in the 1970s, Kaveh Golestan documented many major historical events ranging from the conflict in Northern Ireland, to the Iranian revolution, the Iran-Iraq War, and the Gulf Wars. In 1979 he was awarded the Robert Capa Gold Medal for “superlative photography requiring exceptional courage and enterprise abroad”. He wasn't able to pick up the award until thirteen years later when the work was no longer considered a threat to the Iranian government.

Golestan stepped on a fatal landmine on 2 April 2003 while on a BBC assignment in Iraq and died in Kifri in Northern Iraq.

Az Div o Dad: Fantastical Polaroids of Kaveh Golestan, Project Space, Art Dubai Modern, curator Vali Mahlouji (2015)

Recreating Shahr-e No: The Intimate Politics of the Marginal, MAXXI Museum of XXI Century Arts, curator Vali Mahlouji as part of Unedited History: Iran 1960-2014, (2014-15)

Recreating Shahr-e No: The Intimate Politics of the Marginal, Museé d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, curator Vali Mahlouji as part of Unedited History (Iran 1960-2014), (2014)

Kaveh Golestan: The Citadel, FOAM Museum of Photography, Amsterdam, curator Vali Mahlouji (2014)

Recordingaaa the Truth in Iran 1950-2003, The Kunsthal Rotterdam (2008)

Rouspi, Karegar, Majoun, Tehran University (1978)

Kaveh Golestan, Seyhoun Gallery (1975)

Tate Modern announced the acquisition of twenty vintage silver gelatine prints from the Prostitute (1975-77) series in March 2016.

Los Angeles County Museum of Art acquired ten vintage works from the Az Div o Dad (1976) Polaroid series in September 2015.

Curator and Agent: Vali Mahlouji

vali@valimahlouji.com