Deghati Reza is an Iranian photojournalist born in 1952 in Tabriz (Iran), who is also known for his humanitarian work. He works primarily for National Geographic. He studied architecture in his native country, at the University of Tehran, but he soon turned to photography. The pictures he took of the uprisings in Iran in 1978, which preceded the fall of the Shah and the subsequent rise of Ali Khamenei, indirectly led him to be imprisoned for three years. Newsweek and Paris Match were the first magazines to publish his work, which did not take long to annoy the new rulers of his country. At age 29 he left Iran and he has lived in France since 1981.
Philanthropist, idealist, humanist and an extraordinary photographer, Reza lives to take photographs. He is famous for his “intrepid explorer” style and for photographing the most exotic places in the world. In 2001, he founded Aina, an international non-profit organisation devoted to educating and empowering Afghan women and children through the media. In 1991, he worked as a consultant to the United Nations in Afghanistan, helping to distribute food to the population.