A witness in the eye of the storm

Three words may define eminent photojournalist Reza’s personality: philanthropist, idealist, and humanist.

Paris based, French photographer, quits architecture in 1979 in favor of “Power of photography for humanity” and starts a long journey around the world, in most turbulent moments of each nation’s history.

Reza, has been in some of the most important and historical events of our Humanity, capturing the joys and sorrows of the people. As a visual witness of wars, he has also photographed the Black January and Khojaly massacre, the refugee crisis, and the two wars of Karabakh in Azerbaijan.

He was the last journalist who left Shusha before the fall of the city in 1992, and the first, entering the city after the liberation in 2020. Currently he is working on a new project about the reconstruction of Karabakh. “The Renaissance of Karabakh”.

A believer of the photography as a universal language, his works has been published in the major international media (National Geographic, Time Magazine, Life, Stern, Newsweek, Paris Match, Geo, El Pais ...), Reza exhibits and creates major art installations around the world, gives conferences in the world’s major universities, and international organizations, and participates in documentaries of major TV channels.

Along with his work as a photographer, through his non-profit organizations “Aina world” and “ Reza Visual Academy”, he has been a volunteer, committed to the training the youths and women from conflict-ridden societies and suburbs of major cities across continents to become the visual storytellers of their own destinies. Author of thirty-five books, he has been awarded by World Press Photo, the Infinity Award, the Lucy Award, an honorary medal from the University of Missouri, and the honorary degree of Doctor Honoris Causa from the American University of Paris. A senior fellow of Ashoka, France has awarded him as “Chevalier of the National Order of Merit”.