LONDON—If the subjects who populate Iranian-born, London-based Mitra Tabrizian’s photographs — executives of a fictional international bank, poor Iranian workers, characters based on those in the films of Michelangelo Antonioni — seem like a scattered group, they all share the same sense of unbreachable isolation. The stark alienation of contemporary society has long been the overarching theme of the photographer’s work, as evidenced in her large-format pictures on view at Albion in London through February 27. The show includes two new pieces, Tehran – west suburb and City, London (both 2008), along with a sample of photos from past series, all of which are concerned with the way people are essentially alone in the present day.

This idea extends into the artist’s explorations of both Eastern and Western culture, a dual concern likely influenced by her Iranian-British identity. In “Border” (2005–06), a series of portraits of Iranian citizens living in exile, her subjects appear mostly alone, waiting with patient but pained postures and expressions. In “The Perfect Crime” series (2003–04), actors portray the moments before or after fictional crimes are committed, with the action kept off camera. The photos, which are meant as a critique of the glamorization of violence in contemporary Western film, depict witnesses and perpetrators alike with deadpan, unfazed looks on their faces.

These series, two of Tabrizian’s strongest endeavors, also demonstrate the artist’s mingled interest in documentary and fiction. Looking at pictures from “Border” and “The Perfect Crime” side by side, without any background information, it would be impossible to discern which show real people and which show actors, which are “real” and which are staged. For this reason, the world of Mitra Tabrizian feels simultaneously familiar and false. It is lonely, but also revealing.

Here are the artist’s recommendations for other shows to see around London this weekend:

1. Khalil Rabah: United States of Palestine Airlines, London Office at Rose Issa, through March 5

“This installation by the Palestinian artist Khalil Rabah is a large model plane that uses the logos of various airlines along with empty cabinets, five clocks frozen at different times, and a ‘sofa with no client to welcome!' It’s an intriguing work that leaves the viewer to invest her own meaning. It was initially exhibited at the European Parliament in 2008 to coincide with the Arab Week meetings of European and Arab parliamentary representatives.”

2. Olivier Richon: Anima(l) at Ibid Projects, through Feb. 22

“A Swiss-born professor of photography, Olivier Richon’s new allegorical work focuses on staged portraits of real animals (a monkey, a tortoise, and a dog). Each photograph is highly suggestive, as if a specific text is there to be read. But, as critic Leslie Dick has noted, ‘Nothing is self-explanatory: in opposition to the commonsense view of the photograph as evidence… here there is authorial intention, historical context, a set of meanings which require interpretation.’”

3. John Stezaker & William Horner at the Russian Club Gallery, through Feb. 26
“John Stezaker is one of the leading figures of British conceptual art. Using found images and printed material, Stezaker’s collages involve various techniques such as removals, reparations, rotations, and visual concordances to create ‘new’ images, but sometimes they are so subtle, as in the current exhibition, that one wonders whether there has been any appropriation at all!”

4. Hussein Chalayan at the Design Museum, through May 17
“This is the first major exhibition of British/Turkish Cypriot fashion designer Hussein Chalayan in the U.K. Chalayan’s best work, his more extreme designs with an innovative use of materials, goes beyond the genre of fashion to become a commentary on contemporary culture.”