Abbas is an Iranian photographer whose 45-year career has documented the world with a political outlook. Now with Magnum Photos since the early eighties, this first retrospective of his work opens this Friday at the National Museum of Singapore. Over one-hundred black and white photographs shed light on diverse realities and histories: the Iranian Revolution in the late seventies to the iconic boxing event, The Rumble in the Jungle, between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman in 1974. More recent work reveals a personal and inward side to Abbas's oeuvre through the documentation of his grandchildren in an unfinished series entitled 'Grandad'. I had a the honour of meeting Abbas today, who flew in from India yesterday. He was very involved with the curation of the exhibition, having both an intuitive and pragmatic judgement in the hanging of his work. The space has been installed with projection and audio pods to enrich the visitors' experience and understanding of the show. The series 'In Whose Name' of Muslim societies around the world, for example, is accompanied by Beethoven's symphonies. As a curatorial decision made my Abbas himself, it adds a personal touch to the exhibition as well as raising the controversial question of how objective documentary photography really is.
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