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"Believe in the equality of humanity."
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Profile in Leadership: Reza
2006 Missouri Honor Medal Recipient |
Reza taught a master class for Missouri Journalism students on Nov. 1, the same day that he received the Missouri Honor Medal for Distinguished Service in Journalism. (Click on any of the thumbnail images below to view larger images by Reza.)
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Front: Karen Brown Dunlap, president of The Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg, Fla.; Bill Kovach, founding director of the Committee of Concerned Journalists; Zubeida Jaffer, an acclaimed South African journalist; and Dean Mills, dean of the School. Back: Elson Floyd, president of the University of Missouri; Clifford Christians, an award-winning media ethics scholar; John Seigenthaler, founder of the Freedom Forum First Amendment Center; Reza, photojournalist; Tom Rosenstiel, vice chairman of CCJ; Chuck Curtis, chairman of Valentine Radford/Square One Advertising, Kansas City; and Brady Deaton, chancellor of MU Columbia campus.
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By Audrey Holaday
The power of good journalism is like the light of one small candle, the photographer Reza Deghati told the audience when he recently received a 2006 Missouri Honor Medal for Distinguished Service in Journalism.
No matter how dark the world becomes, the darkness can never extinguish the light.
This image has driven Reza, as he is known, throughout a career devoted to capturing provocative photographs and advocating justice and dignity.
It all started when he was just 13.
The Beginning
"I always had this feeling that I see a lot of things that I wanted to explain to other people," Reza says.
At first, Reza tried painting to share the way he saw things with others. Frustrated by the realization that he was not a good painter, he decided to try something different. He took a small box camera, the simplest form of a camera available, from his father and was delighted to find that he could frame anything he wanted through the viewfinder.
"I could express whatever I wanted to," Reza says. "That was the beginning of a long story that brought me here."
Many years and photographs later, Reza is a world-renowned photographer and champion of human rights. His photographs have appeared in many international magazines, including National Geographic, where he has worked regularly since 1990. His affinity for Afghanistan and dedication to free press led to the founding of AINA, the Afghan Media and Culture Center. For his career and civic achievements, Reza, who lives in Paris, has been awarded the medal of the "Ordre National du Merite" by President Jacques Chirac. And now, because of his career-long contributions to justice and dignity, Reza can add the Missouri Honor Medal to his list of achievements.
Reza, who considers himself a storyteller, says he uses his lens to tell the stories of the people he meets around the world. At times, however, his physical presence has been more important than taking the picture itself.
A Rough Road
While Reza was traveling on assignment in Afghanistan, a bus full of refugees a mere 200 meters in front of him hit a landmine and exploded. The bus turned over and caught fire. Reza stopped his car and grabbed his camera as the screaming refugees fled the wreckage. A young girl, only five or six years old, ran toward him with her arms outstretched, tears streaming down her face and wreckage strewn behind her. Reza saw a prize-winning photograph. Instead of taking the picture, however, he dropped his camera to the ground, took the girl in his arms and tried to calm her. Reza says comforting the child was more important than a photograph.
Reza tries to apply similar compassion to every area of his life and work.
"I'm a deep believer in the equality of humanity," Reza says. "The color of eyes, skin and hair is superficial. So is language. Yet the color of blood is the same for everybody, as is the essence of humanity."
Reza believes in what he calls a humanity vibration, a respect he has for all people. Whether he is working with someone from Rwanda, a villager in China, a fashion designer in Paris or someone secluded in remote mountains, Reza says he can relate to them all without a problem because of the humanity all people share.
"Beyond the surface, there is a deep ocean of humanity in each of us," Reza says. "Knowing we're all the same has helped me connect with people all over the world very easily."
Better Than Buildings
To help spread his ideals of humanity and compassion, Reza founded AINA, a non-governmental organization committed to developing independent media and cultural expression in Afghanistan and educating women and children through media. With headquarters in Kabul, Paris and Washington, D.C., AINA trains journalists of both genders with the primary aim of developing a democratic civil society in Afghanistan through educating children, embracing the media and related works and forming independent media and cultural expression. The organization also helps promote Afghani-made films.
In a third-world country ravaged by war, promoting an ideal like freedom of the press is difficult when many people are more concerned with mere survival. Building hospitals and schools and developing a national infrastructure are the causes many groups have adopted. But for Reza, teaching and sharing knowledge are more important than constructing physical buildings.
He has encountered fundraising obstacles, however, because education and knowledge are intangible. Reza says people often prefer to donate their money when they will be able to see a physical return, such as a building, for their contribution. Others have said that they will give only if AINA agrees to support a certain political platform. Reza says he has chosen to sacrifice his personal belongings rather than his vision for AINA.
"I am actually auctioning pictures, cameras and books, as well as selling posters to raise money for AINA," Reza says.
His hard work and sacrifice are paying off. For instance, in the last five years, AINA has helped train almost 1,000 Afghani girls and boys in all subjects related to media and communication, from design to photography, video, radio and the cinema.
More Than a Photograph
Along with the thousands of lives that Reza has helped improve, he has taken thousands of pictures. He says he cannot pick just one favorite. "That is like asking a father of five to pick their favorite child," Reza says.
One photograph, however, continues to haunt him. In December 1994, Reza was in Sarajevo while the city was seized and warring. There was no food or water, and alert snipers shot anything that moved. As he walked down an alley, he saw a nine-year-old girl standing at the corner of two streets in front of a table covered with dolls. Sorrow overwhelmed her face. Reza took pictures of her and then asked her what she was doing. She said she was selling her dolls to buy bread for her grandmother, who had not eaten in three days.
Reza offered to buy the dolls. The girl took his money, hesitantly giving him the dolls as she slowly backed away into the alley, clutching the money and never taking her eyes off her dolls. Reza beckoned her to come back and speak to him, yet the little girl misunderstood, thinking he wanted his money back. She quickly stashed the money as well as she could in her clothes. Slowly Reza walked into the alley, placing her dolls midway between them and then walking backwards to show the girl his intentions. She then very cautiously stepped towards the dolls, snatching them and darting into the alley just like a cat.
Again, Reza called for the young girl to come back. After much persuasion, she crept back to where he was. He told her to keep her dolls and the money. She snatched them up and ran away.
"If someone would understand how dear those dolls were to that girl, and that she was willing to give them up to feed her grandma, it would help them to understand the horror of war more than any photograph," Reza says.
From war-torn Afghanistan to the streets of Sarajevo, Reza's commitment to humanity and justice has been lighting candles around the world. Someday, he hopes, truth and freedom will shine brightly everywhere.
Related
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Sept. 27, 2006: Eight Journalism Leaders to Receive Preeminent Journalism Award Eight outstanding journalists and a leading journalism organization will receive one of the industry's highest awards: the prestigious Missouri Honor Medal for Distinguished Service in Journalism. The School has awarded the medal annually since 1930. Tom Brokaw, Christiane Amanpour of CNN, Sir Winston Churchill, Carol Loomis of Fortune magazine and Gordon Parks are among the distinguished journalists, advertising and public relations practitioners, business people, institutions and media organizations who have been recipients of this influential award. [More]
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Audrey Holaday, a senior from Wildwood, Mo., will graduate from the Missouri School of Journalism in May 2007 with a bachelor's degree in magazine journalism and a minor in sociology. She is also an active member of Delta Gamma. She served as an editorial intern at Best Body magazine in Manhattan while participating in the School's New York Summer Program. She plans to write and edit for a sports magazine upon graduation.
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