The Rest Is History Revolutions: Iran, the Prague Spring, and Ceaușescu’s Fall | History in Photos
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Mar 31, 2026 
Chris Floyd, a British portrait and editorial photographer, explores the images that came to define modern revolutions. He gets into Abbas’s extraordinary access during the Iranian Revolution. He looks at the failed US rescue mission as a symbol of humiliation. He also unpacks mob imagery, black and white austerity, and how photographs can capture power shifting in real time.
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Why Abbas Could Photograph Inside Iran's Revolution
- Abbas's Iranian birth and Muslim identity likely gave him access Western photographers could not get during the 1979 revolution.
- Chris Floyd stresses he was "in the room" with rival ayatollahs, then still got the film out despite the danger and surveillance surrounding revolutionary images.
The Desert Wreckage That Captured America's Humiliation
- Abbas photographed the wreckage of Operation Eagle Claw in the Iranian desert, turning a failed rescue into a stark image of American humiliation.
- Dominic Sandbrook notes the abandoned helicopter also contained mission plans, whose charred fragments the Iranians later displayed to the world.
How Khomeini Turned Austerity Into Revolutionary Power
- Khomeini's power came from channeling mass rage through an image of cold austerity, which made him seem holy and above ordinary passion.
- Dominic Sandbrook says protesters projected authenticity onto his blank severity after years of funerals, repression, and anger at the Shah's westernizing rule.