“Three Glances For Three Hardships” is a photographic monograph based on nine years of work documenting psychiatric institutions and residential centers for people with physical disabilities in Iran. Featuring photographs and text by Atefeh Farhangikia, the book was published in 2024 by Mehri Publication in London.

The project stands apart from the censored and commissioned imagery produced under the Islamic Republic since the 1979 Revolution. Rather than reproducing official narratives, it offers an intimate, unscripted, and deeply human portrayal of life inside these institutions.

” The hope of art is to imagine a better world, and perhaps looking at photographs that reveal a part of the world’s suffering can help bring such a world into being, especially those moments captured within the camera’s frame and endlessly repeated: pain, illness, suffering, sorrow, and hardship recurring time and again in care institutions. ”