Born and brought up in Tehran, at age 16, Tavakolian took a six-month photography course,[4] after which she began working as a professional photographer in the Iranian press. She started at the women's daily newspaper Zan, and later worked for other nine reformist dailies, all of which have since been banned.[5] When she covered the July 1999 student uprising, using her Minolta with a 50mm lens, her photographs were published in several publications.[4] Tavakolian's photographs, however, were used by the authorities to track down and arrest protesters. Many of them were later tortured and raped at detention centers. This prompted Tavakolian to take her photography in a new direction as she feared she might "inadvertently endanger" someone. She had to go on hiatus from her photojournalist work following the "chaos" of Iran’s presidential election in 2009. During this time, she began other projects focusing on art using photography as well as social documentary.[6] Tavakolian’s photographs became more artistic and involved social commentary. She got her international break in 2001 at age 21, when she met J.P. Pappis, founder of Polaris Images, New York at a photography festival in Perpignan, France. She began covering Iran for Polaris Images, in the same year, and started working as a freelancer for The Times in 2004.[4] Over the years, she has worked internationally, covering wars, natural disasters and social documentary stories in Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Yemen.[5] Her work has been published by international magazines and newspapers such as Time magazine, Newsweek, Stern, Le Figaro, Colors, New York Times Magazine, Der Spiegel, Le Monde, NRC Handelsblad and National Geographic.[7] Common themes in her work are photo stories of women, friends and neighbours in Iran; the evolving role of women in overcoming gender-based restrictions; and contrasting the stereotypes of western media.[8][9] Her photo projects include Mother of Martyrs (2006), Women in the Axis of Evil (2006), The Day I Became a Woman (2010) and Look (2013), which opened at Thomas Erben Gallery, New York City.[10][11] She was part of the 2006 Joop Swart Masterclass organized by World Press Photo.[12] In 2007 she was a finalist for the Inge Morath Award.[13] Her work has been exhibited and collected at institutions such as the British Museum,[14] the Victoria and Albert Museum,[15] the Los Angeles County Museum of Art,[9] the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston [16] and Somerset House, London. (April 2014), where she was one of eight Iranian photographers featured in the critically acclaimed "Burnt Generation" exhibition.[8][17] In June 2015 Tavakolian became a nominee member of Magnum Photos.[3] She lives and works in Tehran[10] and is married to the Dutch journalist Thomas Erdbrink.

Towell grew up in a large family in rural Ontario, attending local schools. At college, he studied visual arts at York University in Toronto, where his interest in photography first began. In 1976 Towell volunteered to work in Calcutta, India, where he became interested in questions about the distribution of wealth and issues of land and landlessness. [1] Returning to Canada, Towell taught folk music and wrote poetry. He became a freelance photographer in 1984. His early work included projects on the Contra war in Nicaragua, the civil war in El Salvador, relatives of the disappeared in Guatemala, and American Vietnam War veterans who worked to rebuild Vietnam. His first magazine essay looked at the ecological damages from the Exxon Valdez oil spill. In 1988, Towell joined the Magnum photo agency, becoming the first Canadian associated with the group. He has had picture essays published in The New York Times, Life, Rolling Stone, and other magazines. His work has included documentation of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, Mennonite migrant workers in Mexico, and a personal project on his family's farm in southern Ontario.[2] He always works with traditional film, eschewing digital options: “Black and white is still the poetic form of photography. Digital is for the moment; black and white is an investment of time and love.”[3] He has also worked with panoramic cameras, which allow him to shoot the “landscapes of destruction”--looking at human beings and their place in the landscape. Towell’s bibliography includes books of photographs, poetry, and oral history. He has also recorded several audio CDs of original poetry and songs. Towell lives in rural Lambton County Ontario and sharecrops a 75-acre farm with his wife Ann and their four children.