Yazd “Jewel of the Desert”, Yazd “City of Wind Towers”, Yazd … In trying to inform ourselves about this city, we will eventually encounter these and other designations. We will also soon find out that the city of Yazd is situated at about 1,200 m above sea level in a shallow valley in central Iran, covers an area of 2,397 km2, is the capital of a province of the same name and has about 500,000 inhabitants. Yet what distinguishes Yazd above and beyond the statistics, how is this city which so fascinates us perceived and experienced by others, what images are imprinted on the visitor’s mind and to what extent does the cultural background influence the perceived image – to try to answer these and other questions was the starting point and motivation for the intercultural project “My Yazd”*. In September 2005 we invited 17 representatives of (artistic) photography from Iran and 6 European countries to come to Yazd and spend a week together there. Their first step towards getting to know one another on site was taken by presenting their work in the form of short lectures, after which some of them also gave additional photography workshops for young Iranian students. However, most of the time was at the disposal of the artists to explore and study the city, to assimilate their own perceptions, experiences and impressions of Yazd and then express them in an artistic form, which they then presented, compared and discussed together. The final product that materialised from this encounter is the volume of photographs selected by the artists that you are now holding in your hands – to help you get a picture of the city … Nariman Mansouri / Stephan Schwarz Project Coordinators X-CHANGE culture-science