Reza Deghati
Reza Deghati was born on the 26th of July in the year 1952. His birthplace is Tabriz, Iran. However, he is an Azerbaijani from the origin. He lives in the city of Paris. Thus, he is an Iranian French photographer. He is not only a very famous photojournalist but also a humanist, idealist, philanthropist, and an architect by training. He has also written 27 books in his writing career. He has been traveling all around the world to witness different moments of peace and war. His work is a reflection of his travel stories. He is not just a photographer, but a very enthusiastic humanitarian. He has been providing people with media training all over the world. He has been specially training children and women in this art through his workshops in the field of visual media and communications. He is the founder of an NGO named Aina in Afghanistan that has been established with the same motive of encouraging media studies among the people of Afghanistan. He is a member of the Ashoka Foundation and National Geographic Society.
His work is admirable because he has produced some very beautiful and original photographs of the overwhelming scenarios that he has experienced during all his life by traveling to numerous different places all over the world. His work is of international standards and has been exhibited almost all around the world. His some of the most famous works are War + Peace, Cross Destinies, Hope, One World One Tribe, Soul of Coffee and Windows of the Soul. He has been awarded several prestigious awards and prizes due to his remarkable work. The Infinity Award, the World Press Photo Award and distinctions from some of the reputable American institutes such as the Medal of Honor provided by the University of Missouri and the title called Doctor Honoris Causa given by the University of Paris are few of them (Kosmos Journal).
Steve McCurry
Steve McCurry was born on 23rd of April 1950 in Philadelphia. He is an American photojournalist, photographer, and a freelancer. He graduated in arts and architecture with a distinction from Pennsylvania State University. He worked in a newspaper agency for 2 years. After that, he moved to India to work as a freelancer. His work got famous before the time of Russian Invasion as he crossed the borders of Afghanistan and entered the country to capture images of the conflict there and publish it all over the world. He was among the first few photographers that were able for covering the conflict in Afghanistan.
He was awarded the Robert Capa Gold Medal for the category of Best Photographic Reporting from Abroad for showing enormous bravery and enterprise. He has also been nominated for the Magazine Photographer of the year award. He was given the first four prizes in the contest of World Press Photo and twice awarded the Olivier Rebbot Award. He is now recognized as one of the finest image-makers on the globe. Steve McCurry’s work is inspired by the struggles and joy of human life, and he beautifully captures the essence of it (Sel).
The most famous work that took him to the peak of his career was the famous ‘Afghan girl’ having the piercing green colored eyes. It was also published on the front cover of National Geographic, and he is still recognized by this photograph all over the world today. The most admirable work of Steve McCurry is his evocative color photography. He has used his art to cover many sensitive conflicts all over the world, which is really inspirational. A major part of his work reflects the outcomes of the war on the face of humans (Sel).
Abbas Attar
Abbas Attar was a Persian photographer born on 29th of March 1944. He was born near the border of Pakistan. Then he relocated to Algeria with his family. He grew up while witnessing the war of independence, which inspired him to document political events. He was famous for his photojournalism that he conducted in Vietnam, South Africa, and Biafra in the 1970s. He is also known for his essays that he wrote on different religions. He was a fellow at the Sipa Press for two years and at Gamma for six good years. He also joined Magnum Photos in the year 1981.
Most of his photographic work was dedicated to covering the social and political events of the developing southern countries. His work has been published in the magazines of all around the world which is centered on the revolutions and wars that took place in Bangladesh, Biafra, Vietnam, Middle East, Cuba, Chile, South Africa, and Ulster. He remained in Iran for seventeen years while photographing the complete revolution and returned in the year 1997. After coming back, he published his book ‘Iran Diary’ in a personal diary style which contains his interpretation of Iran’s history and his photographic work.
Initially, he was a big supporter of the democratic revolution that overthrew Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi in the year 1979 but later he believed that it was getting hijacked, so he stepped back. He is the author of the book “Allah O Akbar: A Journey Through Militant Islam” that summarizes his travels of 29 different Islamic Countries. His best work that I admire is related to his coverage of the Iranian revolution and how he documented them in a very personal style. Abbas died in the year 2018 (Neil).
James Nachtwey
James Nachtwey was born on 14th March 1948. He grew up in the state of Massachusetts. He completed his education in history and political science from Dartmouth College. James Nachtwey is a popular American war photographer and photojournalist. He initially worked as a newspaper photographer for the Albuquerque Journal in the year 1976. Then he moved to New York in the year 1980 to start working as a freelance photographer. He has covered several social and armed conflicts in the Middle East, South Africa, Russia, Latin America, and the Soviet Union. He was severely injured while covering the U.S. invasion of Iraq. He was riding in a Humvee with the American army when an insurgent injured him badly by throwing a grenade inside the vehicle. However, Nachtwey managed to capture some amazing images, before he passed out.
After recovery, he moved to cover the tsunami in Southeast Asia. He has worked as a photographer for Time under a contract. He has been a fellow at Magnum Photos for five years. Also, he is a co-founder of the VII Photo Agency. A documentary called War Photographer was also made as a tribute to Nachtwey in the year 2001. It was focused on his work and was nominated for the best documentary film in the Academy Awards.
In 2014, he was documenting political protests of Thailand when he was shot by a bullet. He is one of the winners of the TED Prize of 2007. He has also been awarded the Henry Luce Award, twice with the World Press Photographer award, seven times with Magazine Photographer of the year, five times with the Red Capa Gold Medal and so many other prizes (National Geographic). His beautiful work related to the Civil Right Movement and Vietnam War made me add him to my list of favorite photographers.
Sebastião Salgado
Sebastiao Ribeiro Salgado was born on 8th of February 1944 in Brazil. He is a Brazilian photojournalist. His work is mostly centered on the sufferings of the downtrodden and the homeless. Salgado’s father was a cattle rancher. He obtained his master’s degree in economics from Sao Paulo University. He was working as an economist in the Finance Ministry when he joined hands with the movement that was taking place against the country’s military government. For this reason, he was exiled from Brazil and had to move to Paris, France where he continued his studies. He took his first few photos while working as an economist for a coffee organization. The art attracted him, and he decided to pursue it as his career.
In 1973, he started working as a freelance photojournalist. He then covered a number of things, including the Civil War that took place in Mozambique and famine in Niger. He also became a member of Magnum Photos. Later, he started focusing on long-term projects in which he used to express a meaningful story through several images following a series. He is the author of several photographic books that include an uncertain grace and Sahel: Men in distress. The peak point of his career was when his work ‘In Human Effort’ was exhibited in the national museums of modern art. He was twice awarded an Oskar Barnack Award, once with the centenary medal and the international award that was provided by the Photographic Society of Japan (The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica).
The thing that I admire about his work is his unique style of photography. His photographs are impassioned and grounded in strong compositions and great beauty. He mostly focused on downtrodden topics, and a sense of nobility reflected from them.
Work Cited
Kosmos Journal. “Reza Deghati.” Kosmos Journal. 2018. https://www.kosmosjournal.org/contributor/reza-deghati/.
National Geographic. “James Nachtwey” National Geographic. 2018. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/contributors
/n/photographer-james-nachtwey/.
Neil, Genzlinger. “Abbas Attar, Who Photographed Iran’s Revolution, Dies at 74.” New York Times. 30 April 2018. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/30/obituaries/
abbas-attar-who-photographed-irans-revolution-dies-at-74.html.
Sel, Ahmet. “Steve McCurry.” National Geographic. 2018. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/contributors
/m/photographer-steve-mccurry/.
The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Sebastião Salgado.” Encyclopaedia Britannica. 2018. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Sebastiao-Salgado.
