Elizabeth Taylor in Iran

Associated media

Leila Heller Gallery

568 West 25^thStreet in Chelsea, New York

Firooz Zahedi: Elizabeth Taylor in Iran

Until 29 October 2011

Photographs of the Screen Legend in Iran in 1976

New York City – Leila Heller Gallery, formerly known as LTMH Gallery, has expanded to Chelsea to a 3,500 square foot ground floor space at 568 West 25th Street between 10th and 11th Avenues. The space, in the heart of Chelsea’s gallery district, was designed by the New York City-based architectural firm Hariri + Hariri. Leila Heller Gallery will launch an ambitious programme of contemporary exhibitions in the new Chelsea space, while focusing on 20th-century work at the Gallery’s current uptown space at 39 East 78^thStreet between Madison and Park Avenues.

The inaugural Chelsea exhibition, Firooz Zahedi: Elizabeth Taylor in Iran presents 40 extraordinary photographs that reveal an insider‘s look at Zahedi’s experience of travelling with the screen legend to Iran in 1976. The series includes stunning images of the late icon posing in odalisque costumes and fashionable chadors.

The photographs in Firooz Zahedi: Elizabeth Taylor in Iran were on view at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) from 26 February – 12 June 2011, and have been lent by LACMA to the Gallery for this exhibition. Before the exhibition at LACMA opened, Elizabeth Taylor said, ‘Seeing these photographs brings back fond memories of my visit to Iran, a country blessed with a rich and colorful culture that dates back many centuries’, The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue with an essay by Linda Komaroff, Curator of Islamic Art and Head of the Department of Ancient and Islamic Art at the LACMA.

Today, Zahedi lives in Los Angeles and is well known for his portrait work for major publications such as Vanity Fair, Town & Country, Esquire, InStyle, and Time. He started his career in photography in New York during the mid-1970s working with Andy Warhol and Interview.