Current Reza Projects |
Reza, one of the best-known photojournalists in the world, has captured the beauty and turmoil of the Middle and Far East for such magazines as National Geographic, Newsweek, Time, and GEO.
Reza was born in Tabriz, Iran, in 1952 and studied architecture at the University of Tehran. He taught himself the principles of photography at the age of 14. From 1971 to 1978, he photographed rural society and architecture in his homeland. The Iranian revolution shifted his focus from the countryside, and he covered the conflict for Agence France-Presse and Sipa Press.
His work for Sipa Press attracted the attention of Newsweek, for whom he became a correspondent in Iran from 1978 to 1981. He then became a Middle East correspondent for Time from 1983 to 1988. From 1989 to 1990 Reza served as a consultant to the United Nations humanitarian program in Afghanistan. Since 1991 he has mainly divided his time between photographing for National Geographic and working for AïNA, a nonprofit NGO he founded for the development of independent media and cultural expression in Afghanistan. Reza has contributed to a number of books, is a regular correspondent for BBC Persian and Radio France Internationale Persian, and has taught at such schools as the Ecole d'Art in Paris, Stanford University, and Georgetown University.
In 2005, he was honored with the Chevalier de l'Ordre du Mérité, the French award for distinguished services in a public or private capacity. In 2006, he received the University of Missouri-Columbia School of Journalism Honor Medal for Distinguished Service in Journalism "in recognition of his lifelong contributions, through brilliant photojournalism, to justice, and dignity for the world's citizens."
