Kazem Akhavan was born in a religious family in 1960 at one of the old neighborhoods around Holy Mashhad’s shrine. Born on the same day as Imam Kazem (may peace be upon him), he was named Kazem.

Having waited many years as the old man of Canaan looking for his missing Josef, His father, one of the servants of Imam Reza’s holy shrine passed away and took his dream of seeing his son to cold soil after 12 painful years being unaware of him. Her mother, Seddighe Haeri, was a teacher.

Kazem finished elementary and junior high school in his birthplace in mathematics. During his education, he was a committed sportsman and gained places in intercity wrestling competitions. 

Besides sports and education, whenever he found a chance, he helped his father serving Imam Reza’s pilgrims. His family had the honor of being servants of Imam Reza’s Shrine in generations.  He joined the revolutionaries as the movement of Islamic revolution began and participated in all the protests vehemently.

After the victory of revolution, he kept his revolutionary ardor and served the country in various positions. His mother passed away in 1980 and saddened him deeply.

By the beginning of inflicted war, he felt uneasy, therefore moved to Ahvaz from Mashhad quickly and joined unsystematic headquarters; as a member of this group, which played an important role in defending the country, participated with his camera in more than 70 dangerous missions and battles along with martyred Chamran.  He accompanied Chamran in most of fighting missions and had a close relationship with him. He was always a pioneer in battles and carried his shooting camera beside his gun; whenever the communication was lost in one of the lines, he was the one who put it back for his courage and expertise; even in difficult situations in which a defeat was not far away, he comforted the others confidently. His composure and equanimity caused comfort in doing the tasks. His presence in different situations brought happiness, even in the first meeting, you had the feeling that you had known him for a long time and you could trust him; you were eager to meet him again.

He was an artist and Basij combatant whose art of photography was born in him during the war and grew inside him based on Chamran words of encouragement and faith and was radiated through recording of scenes of self-sacrifice, becoming one of the phenomena of war photography.

The holy defense is a collection of thoughts, actions, talents, and duties which anyone based on their role have welcomed.  Some of the people have more responsibilities in this expanded field.  An image is more illustrative in the mind than many words or books. Akhavan had a deep understanding of the war and made use of his art for recording scenes which might last a second or happen once in the history. Obviously, being in a war requires boldness, cleverness, skill and interest. Having been in battlefield for more than a year and half, he succeeded in recording exceptional and original scenes for coming generation to see what happened years ago. This is a responsibility which a journalist should make efforts fulfill. He was aware of his duty very well, recording scenes of self-sacrifice of lions of war against the miserable enemy means keeping the memory of epics alive and refreshing the future of a nation. While being in the lines of Hoseinian, he followed his Zeynab-like duty very well. He had to keep the record of red blood of combatants to show their faith; those who obeyed God’s order like Ismail and accepted the difficulties. It was the redness of his blood which fired the souls and remained in history for good. Yes, the battle which was photographed by Kazem was different from the other battles. By the way, how hard we tried and how successful we were in keeping Islamic values? 

By looking at Kazem’s photos, we can witness his eagerness in taking those photos, his faith and interest which led to his skill, and radiation of war facts, meanings, epics, self-sacrifices, boiling of combatants’ blood, death and captivities, destruction, ruins, homelessness, crisis, etc. in his works. The photos show the overflow of his love. He was not just a photographer; he looked at the facts from a transcending angle, such a look made his photos glamorous. The memories of his self-sacrifice and boldness were most talked about among his comrades; they called him the combatant photographer.

One of the features of war photography, compared with documentary and war cinema, is its static position rather than dynamic, thus facts and scenes of a battle are conveyed better. Among 75 professional and amateur photographers who participated in the grand photo exhibition, held in museum of contemporary arts for the third anniversary of Islamic revolution victory, Akhavan gained the first place for his sincerity and his influencing and unique characteristic in recording special and original scenes, based on visitors’ opinions.

Also, some of his works were printed in a monograph published by war headquarters on 11^th of February in 1983 among works of professional photographers of war. One of his photos was chosen for the cover.  It saddens the minds of those interested in works and values of holly defense period to notice the fact that not even the institute of keeping works and values of holy defense used the works of this captivated journalist.