Photographer, cinematographer, director
Born in Tehran, 1951
It was in his teenage years that Kalari became interested in photography. After graduating from high school, he worked as a photojournalist for different magazines and publications. The first exhibition of his photographs entitled “Meeting the People around Us” were held in 1978 in Obeyd Hall in the University of Tehran. After taking a course in professional photography through which he learned the technique, he was employed by Sygma Photo News international agency. This led to the publication of his photos in many reputable magazines of the world. Through the years, Kalari has participated in several solo and group exhibitions in Iran and other countries, the last of which is the exhibition entitled “Fall of the Berlin Wall” in the Iranian Artists Forum. The start of Kalari’s work in cinema was through doing the cinematography for the movie “Frosty Roads” (1985, dir. Masoud Jafari Jozani) which won him the prize of the Best Cinematography in the Fajr Film Festival of that year. In his almost four decades of rewarding career in the Iranian cinema, Kalari has worked with prominent filmmakers like Abbas Kiarostami, Dariush Mehrjui, Ali Hatami, Nasser Taghvai, Masoud Kimiai, Mohsen Makhmalbaf, Rakhshān Banietemad, Bahman Farmanara, Ebrahim Hatamikia, Jafar Panahi and Asghar Farhadi. Fives prizes from the Fajr Film Festival in Iran and several prizes from International festivals are the rewards of his outstanding achievements in the field of cinematography. “Cloud and the Rising Sun” is Kalari’s first experience in filmmaking which won the prize for the Best Movie in the Mar del Plata International Film Festival (1998) in Argentina. Kalari has won several prizes inside and outside of Iran, including the prize of the Camerimage Film Festival for the Best Cinematography for “A Separation” (2011, dir. Asghar Farhadi).

Kalari’s work has been celebrated in various countries, including • Three Continents Festival in Nantes, France (2000), • Fajr Film Festival, Tehran, Iran (2009) • Silk Road Film Festival, Dublin, Ireland (2014) • French Society of Cinematographers, Paris, France (2016) • Eye of Iran, The Museum of Modern Art, New York (2018) Translated by Parisa Hakim Javadi