Iranian American science photojournalist and cinematographer Babak Tafreshi’s work merges art and science through visual stories. With a passion for exploring the night sky, he has documented breathtaking night scenes on all continents and in stills, videos, and 360-degree immersive media and has appeared on more than 100 television shows and documentaries. A National Geographic contributor since 2012, his current project supported by the National Geographic Society is the Life at Night Atlas, where his team creates a visual portal to the values of naturally dark nights and documents the global impact of light pollution on biodiversity. Tafreshi has received the 2009 Lennart Nilsson Award, the world’s most recognized scientific imaging award at the time, the 2022 Royal Photography Society Award, and a National Geographic Society Wayfinder Award in 2022. The International Astronomical Union named the minor planet 276163 (an asteroid between Mars and Jupiter) after him.
