Reza: As a child, I would spend hours playing with my brother, driving our little cars along the arabesques of the Persian carpets of our home.
Our first visual universe was made up of the expertly woven forms and colors created by the skilled artists of Tabriz or Kashan. Later on, when I moved to working in color, shadow continued to be a consistent presence and a major element in many of my compositions. It is not merely a geometric element in the frame, it has meaning. It is a veil which is voluntarily “placed” in the image, which invites the viewer to question, to come up with their own interpretation.
My camera and I, we like to write with shadow, color and light. Whether I am enjoying the privilege and pleasure of offering training in the language of images in conflicted areas, or setting out to the four corners of the world on assignment, or sharing my experiences, each and every time photographic storytelling must be created, above all, with feeling and commitment.
Reza takes a look at New York and its inhabitants, its artistic scene and daily life, its excesses and its diversity. This reportage over several days in the heart of the summer is part of Reza’s continuing look at this city, which began in 1983 when he began a series of long stays during which he worked with Time magazine, whose headquarters are located there.
Launch of National Geographic in Azerbaijan
After classes with youths in the suburbs of Librino in Sicily, Metz, Saint-Ouen, Bondy, Mulhouse, Dijon, Nantes, Châtellerault and Le Mirail (Toulouse) in France, Reza’s Visual Academy made its way to Morocco where, from September 17th to the 20th, as part of the Rencontres Photographiques Berbères program, they worked with ten students from the Tabant boarding school, helping them to become actors and tellers of their own stories. Reza’s Visual Academy presented them with cameras and Reza instructed them in this new mode of expression. As with the session at the Kawargosk camps in Iraq, held in December 2013, Reza’s Visual Academy will continue to ensure a follow-through over the course of the entire school year.
During the shooting of this film, directed by Kheiron, Reza, along with a Webistan Agency photographer, took a behind the scenes look at the making of this drama. The comedian selected Leïla Bekhti, Gérard Darmon and Alexandre Astier to tell the story of his own parents, who opposed the regime and became Iranian exiles in France. Kheiron, who plays the role of his father, shot a lot of scenes depicting imprisonment in recreations of Iranian jails located in the Moroccan city of Casablanca.
As a guest of Mouvement Utopia, an association which seeks to forge links between social movements, the political world and the intellectual scene, Reza lectured on his conviction that photography as visual testament can contribute to the construction of a common future, under the banners of peace and freedom.
Reza Deghati è un fotografo e giornalista iraniano naturalizzato francese. È conosciuto soprattutto per i suoi lavori con la rivista americana National Geographic 
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