Revolutions: Iran, the Prague Spring, and Ceaușescu’s Fall | History in Photos

The Rest Is History

Goalhanger

History

4.6 • 26.6K Ratings

🗓️ 31 March 2026

⏱️ 15 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

**Unlock the full episode and the complete History in Photos mini series by joining The Rest Is History Club at therestishistory.com⁠** In what ways did Abbas’ identity grant him unique access to the Iranian Revolution? How can a single object, like Josef Koudelka’s wristwatch, symbolise an entire geopolitical shift like the Prague Spring? And, how does Moises Saman’s photographic approach to the Arab Spring differ from traditional revolutionary photography? In today’s episode of our new member’s-only mini-series, Dominic is joined by photographer Chris Floyd to discuss iconic photographs of political revolutions of the 20th and 21st century. Sign up to our free newsletter at therestishistory.com/newsletter! The photographers featured in this episode are all members of Magnum Photos. Getty Images has one of the largest and oldest privately held archives globally with access to over 150 million images dating back to the beginning of photography. From historical images created in the early 1800s to more contemporary 1990s imagery, the Getty Images archive houses a wealth of socially significant, historical photos, videos and prints, and includes content from over 40 editorial content partners including Gamma-Rapho, Paris Match, The Bettmann Archive, Sygma and Motorsport Images. Our archive video collection contains 3.1 million hours of offline video footage and includes partners such as NBC News Archives, ITN, Sky News and the BBC Motion Gallery. _______ Twitter: @TheRestHistory @holland_tom @dcsandbrook Video Editors: Jack Meek, Harry Swan + Adam Thornton Social Producer: Harry Balden Producers: Tabby Syrett & Aaliyah Akude Senior Producer: Callum Hill Executive Producer: Dom Johnson Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi everybody, welcome to the Restis History. It's Dominic here, and I'm thrilled to be unveiling our latest exclusive mini-series for our Restis History Club members. We will be plunging into the history of photography and in particular what photography
0:21.1	tells us about history. I'm joined by my friend the great portrait photographer Chris Floyd,
0:27.1	who is going to be talking us through some particular historical moments. So we'll be looking
0:30.6	at revolutions, the Arab Spring, the Prague Spring, the Revolution in Romania in 1989.
0:36.8	We'll be talking about music. So the blues,
0:39.7	David Bowie and so on, we'll be looking at fashion and the role that photography has played
0:44.6	in the transformation of fashion. And finally we'll be talking about technology. How technology
0:49.3	has changed photography and how photography has in turn affected the way that we see history.
0:55.0	So this is a brilliant series.
0:56.6	It's a lot of fun.
0:57.7	We would love as many people as possible to join up and to see this series with me and Chris
1:02.6	talking about some of the most iconic images in recent history.
1:06.8	And in this first episode, we are looking at revolutions.
1:10.0	And here is a lovely little clip.
1:15.3	Iran.
1:16.1	Right.
1:16.6	We're back to Iran again.
1:18.0	Yeah, so 1979.
1:19.6	So what I've really tried to do with these is give you, if you're interested in this subject, who is the photographer that best defines that subject?
1:28.3	Right.
1:29.3	And I've picked one photographer for each of the four revolutions that we're going to cover here.
1:35.3	So Iran 79, the person you really want to look at is a man called, where he was known by a singular name, Abbas.
	...

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