Firing Squad in Iran

Jahangir Razmi (Persian: جهانگیر رزمی‎‎) (b. December 16, 1947 in Arak, Iran) is an award-winning Iranian photographer and the author of the entry that won the 1980 Pulitzer Prize for Spot News Photography. His photograph, Firing Squad in Iran, was taken on August 27, 1979 and published anonymously in the Iranian daily Ettela'at, the oldest still running newspaper in Iran. Days later, it appeared on the front pages of numerous newspapers around the world. The photograph was the only anonymous winner of a Pulitzer Prize in the 90-year history of the award, as the identity of Razmi as the photographer was not revealed until 2006.

Razmi grew up in Arak, Iran, born to a military clerk and a housewife. Interested in photography from an early age, he spent much of his time in a local photo shop developing film and shooting portraits. He bought his own camera at the age of 12, and at the urging of a local reporter, began his career in photojournalism by photographing a crime scene. He got a job with a small photo shop after the death of his father, and later entered the military. He was hired by Ettela'at in 1973, and quickly earned a reputation of skill and bravery. Razmi chronicled the country's 1979 change of power, as protests caused the Shah to flee the country and permitted Ayatollah Khomeini to take power. By August 1979, hundreds of people associated with the former government had been executed, and Khomeini had begun sending the Iranian military to Kurdistan to prevent an uprising. Razmi and an Ettela'at reporter, Khalil Bahrami, followed.

On August 27, 1979, Bahrami learned that a judge he knew would be trying a group of Kurdish militants the following day at the Sanandaj airport. In a 30-minute trial, 11 prisoners were charged with crimes of firearm trafficking, murder, and inciting riots, and were sentenced to death. The men were blindfolded and led outside to the airfield, where they were lined up several meters from their executioners. Razmi was unhindered by security forces, allowing him to stand behind the rightmost executioner and photograph the killings.

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