Born in Tehran, Iran, in 1951, he studied photography in New York and worked for a news agency in Paris. He is one of the most recognized cinematographers in Iran, having worked on films by directors such as Mohsen Makhmalbaf, Abbas Kiarostami, Jafar Panahi, Asghar Farhadi and Majid Majidi. As a director, he helmed the feature films “The Cloud and the Rising Sun” (1998), best film award at the Mar del Plata Film Festival, and “Dance with Dream” (2001).