The political unrest highlighted Iran’s serious economic and political challenges. It was surprising to see the cars of a cross section of society lined up, sometimes for hours, for fuel as people suffered through shortages in a country rich with gas and oil.

Nearly every morning I would leave the hotel and walk a couple of blocks to a bakery, where the fresh fragrance of sangak, the traditional Persian bread, made with hot stones in a blazing oven, would permeate the air. In the line of customers, it was not unusual to have an animated discussion about politics and what “the people” needed to do to see a change in regime.

After covering anarchy and dissent for much of my career, the signs of unrest are very familiar to me. It is no small irony that my pictures of the Iranian revolution of 1979 are only now being exhibited, for the first time this month, at an art gallery in Tehran.