By the Caspian Sea

We stayed in a basic, but supercheap bungalow right by the sea. There was a lot of dancing, smoking, eating and lounging involved. I took some beautiful pictures of a couple dancing while one of the guys played guitar. The others were filming with their phones and singing along. Afterwards, they all asked me to please not publish the photos anywhere because they were afraid of being recognised. The photo above is an accident — it’s way too dark because of some weird camera settings, but it turns out to be the only one I can now safely show without endangering anyone. It was so sad and frightening to realise how potentially compromising pictures of something innocent, like dancing, can be in Iran.

It was raining constantly while we were there, and the rain is one of the main attractions of this area for the drought-stricken Tehranis: They were commenting on how beautiful the rain was, and how much they enjoyed the wet climate.

Tea in the bucolic village of Massouleh, one of the main attractions in Gilan province.

A deserted picnic area.