Babak Tafreshi

Babak Tafreshi is an Iranian-American science photojournalist and cinematographer who merges art and science through visual stories. With a passion to explore the night sky, he has documented breathtaking night scenes in all continents, in stills, videos, and 360 immersive media. A National Geographic contributor since 2012, his night sky imagery aims to reconnect humanity with the natural world, to reveal the wonders of science to public, and to connect cultures through common interest to the night sky. Tafreshi created The World at Night (TWAN) program in 2007 with the message of One People One Sky, and has been directing a growing team of photographers in about 25 countries. He 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 has named the minor planet 276163, an asteroid between Mars and Jupiter, after Tafreshi. Tafreshi’s interest in astronomy began when he first saw the moon through a telescope as a child in Tehran. He started astrophotography in the 1990s, before studying physics, then became an astronomy and space journalist and has presented in more than 100 television shows and documentaries.