(CNN)When Thomas Cristofoletti walked into the Hyperstar supermarket in Shiraz, Iran, he was stopped at the door. He had his camera over his shoulder, and the international-style grocery store was built inside a large mall with a strict policy against photography. "They almost wouldn't even let me bring the camera inside," Cristofoletti recalled. He was able to bring his camera inside, however, and when he saw a woman shopping in a colorful, patterned headscarf he made a surreptitious click of the shutter. "I was able to take that one without looking," he said of an image he made for his series exploring Western-style consumerism in Iran.
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Thomas Cristofoletti traveled to Iran earlier this year and stayed for a month
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He thought daily life in Iran contradicted the way the country is normally portrayed
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"I was really surprised to see these kind of modern stores and malls," he said
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During Cristofoletti's monthlong stay in Iran, he began to notice the differences in the way @placeholder live their public and private lives.