THE INSTANT BEFORE Photograph

"Sometimes, between war and peace, a brief moment allows one to escape into freedom." Reza A VISUAL VITNESS Reza’s career began with studies in architecture. Following his passion for photography, he became an International award winning photographer. He takes his first photograph at 14 and publishes two years later, in high school, the newspaper Parvaz (flight). In 1979, he left architecture to become a photojournalist and covered the Iranian Revolution for the Sipa Press agency and Newsweek magazine. He was finally forced into exile in 1981 for his photographs published in the international press. Then he decided to move to Paris, France. For nearly four decades, Reza has covered a large part of the globe for international media (Time Magazine, Stern, Newsweek, El Pais, Paris Match and Geo…), notably for National Geographic Magazine. His assignments have taken him to over a hundred countries. His photographs are testimony to the chaos of war, its ravages and the helplessness of human beings caught in the storm. They also tell the world's cultures, traditions, history and, most of all, Reza's infallible hope for a better world. Year, 1991 marks the beginning of a long and close collaboration with National Geographic, magazine for which he carries out many subjects. His photographs were the subject of 25 covers of the Magazine. The following year, Reza co-founded in Paris, with his wife Rachel Deghati, a writer, a studio around the image and words, the agency Webistan. Reza is quickly convinced that there are as many ways to tell a story as media, press publications, web-documentaries, exhibitions, installations in the public space, documentaries made by him or on his work, books and conferences are all complementary means of talking about a subject he is witnessing. Since its creation, its agency has helped to implement its different projects. "The world is my field of vision. From war to peace, my images are intended as a testimony of humanity as we follow the world's different paths."