forthcoming Mount Damavand, 1978 Inkjet printed on Ultra chrome paper Edition 1/3 Lake Maharlu, 1976 Lambda Print on Archival Paper Edition 1/5 Dahan-e Ghulaman, 1977 Lambda Print on Archival Paper Edition 1/5 past Wilmotte Gallery at Lichfield Studios: 133 OXFORD GARDENS, LONDON W10 6NE Email: info@tristanhoare.com All Contents © Copyright 1998-2012 Tristan Hoare Kerman, 16 September 1977 Lambda Print on Archival Paper Edition 1/5 Georg Gerster PERSIA: PARADISE LOST  8th April - 20th May Between April 1976 and May 1978 Swiss-born, pioneer of aerial photography Georg Gerster spent over 300 hours crouched at the back of a twin-engine light aircraft above Iran. Accompanying him wherever he went was Dr Dietrich Huff, a distinguished archaeologist and an expert on Iran. Dr Huff would sit at the front while Georg would sit behind him next to a gaping hole where the cargo door should have been, pointing his Nikon camera down to the ground below.  'There was no sensible way of conversing with my archaeological guide in the cockpit - trying to shout over the noise coming through the open doorway was no use. So the captain would simply switch off the engines. Thankfully the Islander, with its broad wings, can somewhat glide for a while.' Commissioned by Empress Farah herself, Gerster's expeditions have provided a unique record of the Persia's amazingly diverse landscapes and of its most significant archaeological sites. We fly over mountains, deserts, gardens, lakes, salt plains, seas and cities. We fly over the spectacular site of Takht-e Soleyman in the north east, where newly anointed kings would make a pilgrimage to humble themselves at the holy fire; we fly over Sistan, a place of legends where Rostam, the hero of the Book of Kings, is said to have been born - in this image the shifting sands look likely to cover the city again; south of Tehran, we pass a camel caravan on the way to the ancient Zoroastrian heartland of Kerman, later famed for its silk and visited by Marco Polo in the 13th century. Gerster's stunning images have captured the amazing and varied beauty of Persia. They create a sense of wonder at the scale and magnificence of the country and highlight the relationship between man and land - men shape nature but are also shaped by it. Somehow the higher perspective conjures up a timeless world with the wind as only companion, and gives the viewer a rare opportunity to contemplate civilisation from a different angle. 'Altitude', said Gerster, 'provides overview, overview provides insight, while insight eventually, I hope, leads to respect and consideration.'