Shadi Ghadirian was inspired by the type of studio portraiture first introduced to Iran in the late nineteenth century, under the Qajar dynasty (1794-1925). In order to recreate the earlier setting, Ghadirian employed appropriately painted backdrops and dressed models and friends in borrowed vintage clothes. She adds modern anomalies to these traditional scenes by posing the model with for example, a Pepsi can, a boom box, or a vacuum cleaner. Women and their role in present-day Iran are a focal point of Ghadirian's work. In electing to concentrate on women she has chosen, perhaps, one of the most difficult subjects, as all images of women in the Islamic Republic of Iran must be shown attired in hijab regardless of context. Ghadirian has transformed this seeming constraint into the very theme of her images, not only in her "Qajar" series but in a subsequent group entitled "Like Everyday." In this later series the Iranian chador, as much a symbol as a garment, becomes focus of each of the photos; but these are chadors and where the face would be is instead a house-hold utensil, a teapot, an iron, a broom, and so forth.