As a witness to some of the world’s most dramatic war stories and uprisings, Reza Deghati has plenty of stories to share — of despair, hope, triumph, loss, courage, cowardice and every other human emotion. He recounts them in photographs, because photos he believes speak a universal language.
Trained to be an architect, Reza turned to photography purely in pursuit of his passion for the craft and has travelled the globe documenting war stories, genocides and conflict zones for some of the world’s leading publications including Time magazine and the National Geographic among others — the latter for the past 24 years. In the country for the launch of the magazine’s collector’s edition titled Around the world in 125 years, the photojournalist says he feels “at home” here.
“Iran and India have a lot of cultural similarities and it’s always a pleasure to be back,” he says. Despite the fondness in his voice as he speaks of his homeland, Reza hasn’t been to Iran since 1981 — the year he fled the country and sought refuge in France where he now lives in exile. “Unfortunately, Iran is ruled by dictators and endless acts of crime are committed against humans and humanity everyday, that I won’t stop talking about. If I go back, it will be a one-way trip,” he says with a smile.
The book chronicles many interesting stories from around the globe brought together by NatGeo’s heroic photographers. Reza’s stories are of course, a big part of the collection and include staying put in a hotel room for seven days to get a glimpse of Libyan ruler Gaddafi and spending days on end with Afghan military leader Ahmad Shah Massoud before his assassination in 2001.
As a photographer and humanitarian (he has won multiple awards in both categories), Reza believes in the power of the craft and its potential to change the world. As an example, he shares his experience at the Rwanda genocide where he along with Unicef and Red Cross, helped reunite 3,500 displaced children with their families with a photo exhibition titled “Lost Children’s Portraits”. “It made no Guinness World Record, but it’s probably the largest photo exhibition with 12,000 human portraits up on display. Since the genocide displaced numerous families, I gave some refugees cameras and asked them to click people’s pictures at random. We developed all the 12,000 pictures and put them on display at five refugee camps across the area.
That helped people find their families,” he says. Sharing a somewhat endearing yet disturbing anecdote he continues, “There was a particular lady who broke down at the sight of her son’s mug shot instead of feeling relieved that he was alive. When I asked her why she was crying, she said, ‘You just have his face. Where is the rest of his body?’ That’s when I realised how disconnected we are from reality.”
Often photographers are conflicted between staying a silent witness while documenting a story and intervening to change its course. Reza on his part is clear that he will photograph an event only if it doesn’t need him to intervene as a human first. Ask him how many times he’s been conflicted and he questions in mock sincerity, “How many days do we have for this session?” Later, pinning down a date he adds, “April 8, 1992, we were driving towards Kabul from the Pakistan border when the Mujahideen had just taken over and the government had collapsed. A passenger car blew up after hitting a landmine right in front of our car and a little girl drenched in blood walked towards me asking for help. It would have made for a great picture, but I had no option but to put down my camera and hug the little girl.”
Incidents like these make Reza empathise with people, he tells us. Sometimes however, he takes the empathising a lot more seriously — like the time he starved for 72 hours in his Paris apartment before boarding a flight to Somalia. “I had seen works of other photographers who had shot people in Somalia. In my personal opinion, they treated them as objects without giving them the dignity of a human. I wanted to know what it’s like to be so hungry. How else would I be able to tell their story?”
Recovering from the emotionally draining experiences however is a different battle altogether. Reza takes refuge in poetry when it comes to that. Also, Gandhi’s words. Quoting the Mahatma he says, “Whatever work you do, ask yourself if it is helping the most vulnerable people you know.” He continues, “I believe in the inner goodness of people and I believe that photographs can help change people. For me, it has the power to make this world a better place.”
