audio, stills, text and or video: Go to http://www.zReportage.com to see more - Hundreds of thousands of people across Iran poured out on to the streets in a spontaneous outburst of celebration when cleric Hassan Rouhani won the presidential elections. Photographer Amos Chapple said he 'was amazed by the difference in western perceptions of the country, and what I saw on the ground...I think because access for journalists is so difficult, people have a skewed image of what Iran is -- the regime actually want to portray the country as a cauldron of anti-western sentiment so they syndicate news footage of chanting nutcases which is happily picked up by overseas networks. For ordinary Iranians though, the government is a constant embarrassment. In the time I spent there I never received anything but goodwill and decency, which stands in clear contrast to my experience in other middle eastern countries.' Mr Rouhani has won a respectable mandate with the promise of pulling Iran back from the brink, helping to end international sanctions and reversing soaring inflation. But can he deliver?
© Amos Chapple/zReportage/ZUMA

Feb. 26, 2013 - Shiraz, Iran - A commemorative plate of the former Shah of Iran in an antique store. The Shah was installed in power by an MI6 and CIA-backed coup after Prime Minister Mosaddeq nationalized the petroleum industry of Iran, thus shutting out British dominance of an industry they had controlled since 1913.
© Amos Chapple/zReportage/ZUMA

Feb. 25, 2013 - Shiraz, Iran - A worker inside Vakil Mosque. The mosque now serves as a tourist attraction but sees only a trickle of visitors. Although tourism is on the increase, western tourists still make up only 10% of the total. One tourist guide said westerners are scared away by the bloodcurdling rhetoric of a government which is completely out of touch with ordinary Iranians.
© Amos Chapple/zReportage/ZUMA

July 8, 2012 - Tehran, Iran - A young worker walks through the light of a stained glass window in a bazaar. Under Khomeini, Iranians were actively encouraged to produce large families. By 2009, nearly 70% of all Iranians were under 30, but the country is the least religious in the region. Instead of the ''armies for Islam'', the youthful population is now the biggest threat to the regime.
© Amos Chapple/zReportage/ZUMA

Dec. 6, 2011 - Palangan, Kurdistan, Iran - Palangan has benefitted handsomely from government support. Many villagers are employed in a nearby fish farm, or are paid members of the Basij, whose remit includes prevention of ''westoxification'', and the preservation of everything the 1979 Islamic Revolution and the Ayatollah Khomeini stood for.
© Amos Chapple/zReportage/ZUMA

Dec. 12, 2011 - Tehran, Iran - Azadi (''Freedom'') Tower, the gateway to Tehran designed in 1966 by a then 24 year old Hossein Amanat. As a practicing Bahai'ist, Hossein was forced to flee Iran after the Islamist government labeled followers of the religion ''unprotected infidels''. He now lives in Canada.
© Amos Chapple/zReportage/ZUMA

July 10, 2012 - Tehran, Iran - At the Sa'adabad Palace complex, Islamic revolutionaries sawed a statue of the deposed Shah in half. Today schoolchildren are taken on group visits past the boots and into the palace to see the decadence of the former Shah's living quarters.
© Amos Chapple/zReportage/ZUMA

July 13, 2012 - Tehran, Iran - Two soldiers being attacked inside the Tehran metro after an argument. The soldier was punched in the head at least four times by an angry crowd of mostly well-dressed young men. Both soldiers were forced to leave the metro at the next station.
© Amos Chapple/zReportage/ZUMA

July 7, 2012 - Tehran, Iran - View of central Tehran from inside a minaret in Sepahsalar Mosque.
© Amos Chapple/zReportage/ZUMA

July 9, 2012 - Tehran, Iran - A collection of modern art valued at .5 billion is held by the Museum of Contemporary Art. In a little-publicized exhibition in 2011 the works, including pieces by Warhol (pictured), were put on display for the first time since 1979 when the owner of the art, Queen Farah Pahlavi, was forced to flee Iran with her husband, the late Shah of Iran.
© Amos Chapple/zReportage/ZUMA

July 10, 2012 - Tehran, Iran - Many young Iranians feel deeply embarrassed by their government, and the way the nation is perceived abroad. Zac Clayton, a British cyclist who will finish a round-the-world cycle on March 23 describes Iran as having the kindest people of any country he cycled through.
© Amos Chapple/zReportage/ZUMA

July 8, 2012 - Tehran, Iran - The Mausoleum of Ayatollah Khomeini in Tehran. Work on the unfinished building has dragged over 23 years. With growing economic chaos in the country, its completion is still nowhere in sight.
© Amos Chapple/zReportage/ZUMA

July 10, 2012 - Tehran, Iran - Women in the hills above Tehran at dusk. Concealing clothing in the Islamic Republic, including head coverings, is mandatory for women, but the exact definition of ''modest'' is flexible, leading to a tug of war between young females and the authorities each spring.
© Amos Chapple/zReportage/ZUMA

Dec. 7, 2011 - Palangan, Kurdistan, Iran - A shepherd leads his flock out to pasture in the mountains on the Iran/Iraq border.
© Amos Chapple/zReportage/ZUMA

Dec. 9, 2011 - Iran-Iraq border - Clouds twist above a village in the mountainous borderlands with Iraq, near where the three American hikers were arrested 2009.
© Amos Chapple/zReportage/ZUMA

Dec. 9, 2011 - Palangan, Kurdistan, Iran - A Kurdish man settles in for a night of guarding some road construction equipment in the mountains. The border is rife with smugglers who carry alcohol from Iraq (where alcohol is legal) into the villages on the Iranian side. From there it is transported by vehicle to the cities. In Tehran a can of beer on the black market fetches around $10 USD.
© Amos Chapple/zReportage/ZUMA