Erfan Kouchari, Iran

Closed kindergartens and schools, collapsing health systems, fathers and mothers released into unemployment, aggravated misery: The global coronavirus pandemic has had disastrous consequences for millions of children, especially in poorer countries. Places where distancing rules are a mere theory and protective masks are a luxury, where self-isolation is to be practiced in tiny dwellings, where people have to travel in crammed trains and buses instead of cars.

In the Iranian capital of Tehran, photographer Erfan Kouchari has captured somewhat friendlier scenes from a country in times of Corona. A country where almost 50,000 people died of Covid-19 by December 2020, despite imposed lockdowns.

Kouchari shows how the children escape onto the flat roofs of their houses, how they use these spaces to play, skate, fly kites, do gymnastics, build tents or plant gardens.

Photographer: Erfan Kouchari, Iran (Tasnim News Agency)

Tehran-based Erfan Kouchari, 28, is a self-taught photographer almost unknown outside Iran. He became known to a wider public through his photos of the funeral procession of Iranian General Qasem Soleimani, who was killed in a U.S. Army air strike, which were published in various Western media.