● Birthplace: Tehran
● Website: www.alfredyaghobzadehphoto.com
Biography
He was born from an Armenian father and an Assyrian mother in a cultural family. Alfred Yaghobzadeh was a young man who became acquainted with the camera for the first time during the Islamic Revolution of 1978, and as he says, he was present as an observer in all the demonstrations of that time and also took pictures for himself. This presence introduced him to Asghar Bichareh, a cinema photographer who was their neighbor, so that he could appear and print his photographs in the darkroom belonging to him and use his guidance. With the formation of the Islamic Revolution in 1978, he changed his major from interior design to study photography. After the start of the imposed war, he went to the fronts and was in Dr. Chamran’s irregular warfare group for 3 years and photographed for domestic and foreign media. Photographing the Iran-Iraq war and collaborating with the Associated Press, Gamma, Sigma Photo Agency, Sipa Press and Newsweek Magazine’s exclusive photographer in Lebanon from 1983 to 1985 are among his early photographic activities. Alfred Yaghobzadeh’s main professional activities include recording the events of the Lebanese Civil War and the Afghanistan War from 1986 until the fall of the Taliban. He has photographed for 13 years among Palestinian fighters against Israel. Yaghobzadeh has documented internal crises in Somalia, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Cuba, India, Turkey, Russia, Iraq, China, Chechnya, Sri Lanka, the United States, and eight valuable historical moments. He was taken hostage by gunmen in the Khan Yunis area of Gaza City, Palestine, in March 2005, along with two other foreign journalists, during the Israeli invasion of Jericho Prison, but was released shortly afterwards. He has valuable experience in the field of rituals, religious ceremonies and traditions in more than 24 countries. Yaghoubzadeh has published his experiences in this field in a book entitled “Christianity in the World” and has organized exhibitions of these photographs in Milan, Budapest, Perpignan and several European cities.
Alfred Yaghobzadeh, in 2015, Syria and Iraq, began to photograph the incidents of civil war in these countries and ISIS attacks. He shot the Yazidi people in the Sinjar district of Iraqi Kurdistan, who had been attacked by ISIS, especially in the Yazidi women who were tied up by ISIS forces and were raped and destroyed. He also photographed the captives of the detains who were possessed by Kurdish forces. The early works of Yaghobzadeh in Iran, with the titles of “Iran – Iraq War” and “war figures” have been published. This book is a collection of 1980 and 1981 years old photographs of the Iran-Iraq war. In the introduction of this book, Yaghobzadeh has traveled to the front last year over every shot and the scene Alfred Yaghobzadeh is very, and although it has been shot in other fields, but it dared to say, his photography is born with war, and it grows Finds crystallization. In this book, he was able to show the various figures of war, including: epic and the boiling of heroism, self-sacrifice on the one hand and death, destruction, displacement and exile on the other hand in a report method and by stating that there is life on both sides of the war. In the first chapters of the book, the photographer has succeeded to portray the special scenes of the war in the mission of the Irregular Warfare group and the emphasis on mobility and employing the environment as the background of photographs and the use of the Kids ‘ mode of group and the special space of the front. Also, his video reports are the offers of the Palestinian people’s resistance to the “promised peace.” He is now living in Paris and has covered many news events around the world over the past 37 years.
Alfred Yaghobzadeh is one of the most prestigious Iranian photographers who has always worked at the world’s best news agencies and is among the few great photographers who have been able to assemble the world’s most prestigious photography awards. All the laurels that have earned during these years can be referred to 2 times of the award, for documentary photos of the Lebanese people’s War and life, and the first prize of the Art and prayer photo competition in Tehran caused the first presence in Iran after 22 years. Seeing more than 90 countries and attending more than 30 major world wars and events, he has made a global face that can always be effective. In a conversation with the eastern newspaper, he owes his photography to the revolution.
In 1982, when he moved to India with Mohammad Farnood and Mahmoud Kelary to participate in the aligned Conference, he was again, and many young third-generation photography had no close contact with him. After years of being away from home, when a word from Iran comes to a special respect from the name “Iran” and “Homeland”. It was a few months ago that he had left Iran with concern. In his faith, he always remembers Iran and his friends, and has always pursued Iran’s photography wherever it was.
