Giovanna Silva

A portrait of the overlap between politics and architecture at the US embassy in Iran

In 2018, Italian photographer Giovanna Silva (born 1980) photographed and collected archival documents from the infamous American embassy in the capital of the Islamic Republic. Here, architect and educator Hamed Khosravi contributes an essay on social movements and architecture.

On April 17, 1975, the Khmer Rouge marched on Phnom Penh led, among others, by Brother Number One, Pol Pot (real name Saloth Sar). As the city's inhabitants tried to celebrate as best they could Cambodian new year, which falls between 15 and 17 April, on the evening of April 16 fireworks and firecrackers exploded against the background of the darkening sky together with the firing of weapons. The number of dead in the three and a half years of Pol Pot's rule will never be established with precision. With the fall of the Shianouk regime its leading architect also disappeared. Vann Molyvann rebuilt the country taking his inspiration from the temples of Angkor Wat. The Olympic stadium is one of the country's prominent modern buildings. It is said that officials of the Lon Nol government were gathered here to be executed during the revolution. This book by Giovanna Silva and Peter Fröeberg Idling retraces the history of Cambodia, creating a fictional and personal story that looks at the country through the eyes of the two authors.

In 2010, Italian photographer Giovanna Silva (born 1980) was asked to photograph a school in Afghanistan. She lived there for two weeks in close contact with soldiers, traveling with them and seeing the country from their standpoint. The book recreates this narrative, moving from dim interiors to open horizons.

Using archival images and new photographs taken in locations ranging from Benghazi to Tripoli, in this publication Italian photographer Giovanna Silva (born 1980) documents the structures built by Muammar al-Gaddafi’s regime that were demolished during the 2011 revolution.