Deghati, who has worked for Sipa Press Agency and Agence France-Presse (AFP), is currently the head of IRIN Photo, The United Nation's News Agency. His career, spanning over three decades, has been adorned with prestigious awards including Special Achievement Prize from American Deadline Press Club (1980), 1st and 3rd Prize from World Press Photo (1983 and 1986 respectively), 1st prize at the 11th International Festival of SCOOP and Journalism in Angers (1996), Georges Benderheim Prize (2001) and more.

At a photographic presentation organised by Drik Picture Library, Pathshala and University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh (ULAB), Deghati went over his memorable works. The presentation was held at the ULAB auditorium in Dhanmondi on July 18.

Shahidul Alam, director of Drik, and Dr. Kazi Anis Ahmed, director of Academic Affairs, ULAB, spoke briefly prior to the presentation.

Deghati's introduction to photography has all the elements to make a sensational story. Educated as a cinematographer, he returned to Iran from Italy in 1978. The first major demonstrations against the regime of the Shah were breaking out. He decided to photograph those events. According to Deghati, "I remember going out with a camera in hand. A truckload of soldiers was passing me by. One of them loaded his rifle and fired at me. The burst of bullets passed on either side of my head. I was alive. I was shocked. But above all, I realised that I was a target because I was taking pictures. That reinforced my determination to take pictures."

The presentation started with images of people in the Iranian city of Qom, mourning on 'Ashura'. A photo of a former political prisoner demonstrating how he was tortured by the Shah's forces was followed by shots of demonstrations against the tyranny. Deghati also photographed all the major events during the new Khomeini regime, the hostage crisis at the American embassy and the Iran-Iraq war. Images of Iranian soldiers stoutly marching over a US flag painted on the street and people opposing the authority, tearing Khomeini's posters apart, indicated the troubled times.

A photo captures a scene of a mass execution, which according to Deghati took place quite often following the Iranian Revolution. Faces appear in a sea of black veils at a prison for women. Images of children carrying weapons to demonstrate the unwavering morale of the nation, during the Iran-Iraq war that lasted 8 years, witness the absurdity of war.

In 1985, the Iranian government put restraints on Deghati's photography. He went into exile in France. In 1987, Agence France-Presse asked him to assume the direction of the agency's first regional bureau in Central America. Deghati followed the guerrilla war in El Salvador, the conflict between Contras and Sandinistas in Nicaragua, the civil war in Guatemala, and the American incursion in Panama.

In 1990, Deghati covered the Gulf War. A photo of a US tank, with "Camel Killer" spray-painted on its turret, reveals the American attitude towards Arabs. A shot of a US warship entering the Suez Canal is made to look like the vessel is resting right in the middle of the desert.

Deghati also photographed the rise of Islamist militancy in Egypt, the war and famine in Sudan and Somalia.

In September 1996, he was gravely wounded in Ramallah, West Bank, during a confrontation between Israelis and Palestinians. He spent two years in physical therapy at a hospital for war veterans in France. Since December 1998, Deghati has worked for the AFP bureau in Paris.

The photojournalist went to Afghanistan in 2002 and formed Aina Photo, which has become the first and most important supplier of photographs from that country.

Following the presentation, Deghati responded to questions from the audience that included students and teachers of ULAB, photo-enthusiasts and photographers.