REZA - BIOGRAPHY

Born in Tabriz, Iran in 1952, under the regime of the Shah, Reza is today one of the best-known photojournalists in the profession. Based in Paris he had witnessed for 25 years the injuries and the joys of the ones he meets on his road, but also the torments he himself had suffered.

At 22, he was imprisoned for three years in Iran because he took subversive pictures and organized exhibitions without authorization. He was subjected to torture and pain. But his stay in the political jail of the Shah makes his character stronger because he had an opportunity to meet all the Iranian intellectuals who were imprisoned as well: “It was wonderful to be together with the greatest writers, philosophers, journalists and movie directors.”

Prison draws his destiny. He learns French and decides to get involved alongside the suffering populations. In 1981, as a well-known photographer, he flees from Iran, and goes into exile to Paris.

In 1983, Reza goes for a mission in Beirut and a phosphorus Israeli bomb burns his lungs. Doctors advice him to go recover in the mountains. He chooses Afghanistan. There, he meets Commander Massoud. It is the beginning of a great friendship. Reza is very moved by his death in 2001, and published a book of photos of his companionship of 18 years with the commander.

As a photojournalist for the National Geographic, Reza has travelled through hundreds of countries, covered many conflicts, revolutions and human disasters. He now has his own agency, Webistan. He also founded the NGO Aïna, which gets involved in education, communication, and information today, in Afghanistan, elsewhere tomorrow. Already, the children magazine launched in Afghanistan in 2002, will see the birth of a sister edition for the children in Sri Lanka.

His committed pictures are widely published in the international press (Time Magazine, Stern, Newsweek, Paris-Match, Géo…), as well as in the National Geographic, for whom he had been working since 1990.

Trough his big exhibition, Crossing Destinies, on the grids of the Luxembourg garden, in the French Senate, in Paris, he gave us a sincere and committed vision of the world.

Since then, he shares his time between the NGO Aïna and his work for the National Geographic Magazine.

Honoured with the title of ‘Chevalier de l’Ordre du Mérite’ , the French award for distinguished services in a public or private capacity, by the President of the French Senate, Christian Poncelet for his humanitarian work and for his photojournalism career, he offers us this visual tribute to women.