For over three decades, photojournalist Reza Deghati, popularly known as Reza, has witnessed moments of war and peace and documented some of the world’s most dramatic genocides and uprisings in photographs. However, he is clear on his part of photographing an event only if it doesn’t need him to interfere as a human first. And with his style of functioning, he has helped people reunite with their families.
Born in Tabriz, Iran, in 1952, Deghati studied architecture at the University of Tehran. But photography, which he says, “as a universal language” attracted him emotionally, led him to take it up as a profession.
Deghati’s works have appeared in major international publications, including “National Geographic”, “Newsweek” and “Time”. Having travelled the globe, he has innumerable experiences to share, which he has recounted in photographs that speak a thousand words.
Deghati has also authored several books and won many awards such as the World Press Photo Award, the Infinity Award and France’s highest civilian honour, the Chevalier de l’Ordre National du Mérite.
Weekend Review spoke to Deghati about his life and work. Excerpts:
When and why did you leave the field of architecture to become a full-time photojournalist?
I became interested in photography at the age of 13. It wasn’t my love of the profession, but the discovery of the medium that I found was helping me to express myself and the things happening around me. It moved me to see certain sections of the society leading miserable lives. The poverty and social injustice meted out to them was too much for me to bear.
While in high school at the age of 16, I started a magazine named “Parvaz” and wrote about the miseries in Iran. I was caught by the police and beaten up. Later, I started developing pictures in my darkroom and pasted them on university walls. I was arrested for this offence, tortured and jailed for three years, but I refused to give up.
I studied architecture and continued with photography. But in 1978, the Iranian revolution shifted my focus totally towards photography and I quit architecture. I began shooting extensively, taking photographs of demonstrations and turmoil in Iran and contributed to newspapers and magazines.
My work with Agence France-Presse and Sipa Press attracted the attention of “Newsweek” and I worked with them as a correspondent till 1981. I began having troubles with the new regime and had to leave Iran in 1981. I’ve been living in exile in Paris ever since.
How did you get to photography in war zones and troubled areas across the world? Which countries have you covered?
The first was the 1979 Kurdish rebellion in Iran, about two months after the Iranian Revolution. It became the largest among the nationwide uprisings in Iran against the new regime. Those photographs were published extensively. When the Iran-Iraq war started, I was one of the first photographers to be on the front line.
Later, I went to Beirut for “Newsweek” and Sipa Press, covering the siege of Beirut in 1982. I was wounded in bomb attacks by the Israeli forces and taken to a hospital in Cyprus by ship and subsequently flown to Paris for treatment. Once I got better, I continued with my work, travelling to Afghanistan and Africa on war-related assignments.
What impressions did the wars leave on you?
The experiences have led me to come to the help of refugees in war-torn areas. The concept of everyone having a story and telling it in a different way started in 1983 at the Afghan refugee camps. I bought cameras at markets in Peshawar and asked the refugees to document their daily lives.
During the Rwandan genocide in 1994, along with Unicef and Red Cross, I helped reunite 3,500 displaced children with their families. Since numerous families were scattered, I trained some refugees and then gave them cameras and film rolls to photograph children who had lost their parents.
All those pictures were developed and put on display at five refugee camps across the area. That proved extremely helpful to people in finding their families. It was probably the largest exhibition with 12,000 human portraits up on display. I continued this later in the townships of Africa, the Philippines, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh and China.
Apart from war, you have also covered famine.
The Somalia experience of 1989, when I went to cover the famine in the region, is unforgettable. Before the journey, I starved for 72 hours in my Paris apartment to know what hunger feels like. This was my way of understanding the situation.
When I went there, I could easily sense what those people were going through. Through my pictures I have always wanted to show to the world what I see. I want people to experience the real feeling behind the picture and not just see it as a photograph.
While shooting, it’s a challenge for me to forget that I’m a photographer. What I try to capture through my lens is part of the joys and sufferings of the people.
You’ve often spoken about emotions taking precedence over your professional work.
Yes. For me, that’s the basic and ethical way to deal with a situation. I remember the time in April 1992 when we were driving towards Kabul from the Pakistan border. It was a time when the Mujahideen had just taken over and the Afghan government had collapsed. A minibus hit a landmine and was blown up right in front of our vehicle.
I saw a little girl drenched in blood running towards me asking for help. It would have made for great pictures. But I dropped my camera and grabbed the frightened child and hugged her. In the melee, a filter of my camera broke but that was of absolutely no importance to me then.
There have been other instances where I have seen people in horrid situations in need of help. In such times, I have first provided help to them rather than capture those moments.
With what purpose did you launch an NGO?
The NGO Aina (mirror), an international organisation, was started in 2001 in Afghanistan. Thousands of men, women and children were trained in all kinds of media-related activities so that they could work in organisations or start their own ventures.
This runs parallel to my work as a photographer and is a part of the bigger plan that I have been working on. The NGO is dedicated to the education and empowerment of children and women through the use of media and communication. My aim is to develop skills in people so that they contribute towards building a free and open society, promote human rights and strive for a better life.
I have recently started a new project called Exile Voices. It is a five-year project that I’m offering to United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to photograph refugees on the border and also training children in refugee camps by providing them with cameras to become camp reporters. This was first done in Uganda in 2006, followed by Jordan, Iraq and Palestine. Lately, it is being carried out with Syrian refugees.
Nilima Pathak is a journalist based in New Delhi.