Ako Salemi, a US-based photographer and filmmaker was born in 1981, Bukan, Kurdistan, Iran. Since 2005 he has worked as a photojournalist and a photo editor for several important Iranian newspapers. As a freelance documentary photographer and filmmaker, he works for international outlets now. He is one of the founder members of an inspirational photography group called 'Hikari Creative'. One of his pics was among 29 Instagrams that define the world in 2014 selected by Time Magazine. He received honorable mentions from Instagram-Getty Images 2015 and 2016 grants. His images were published worldwide in Time Lightbox, Time, The New York Times, The New Yorker, VOX, and Lens Culture.
​His proposal about the climate change crisis in Iran won the Persephone Miel Fellowship of Pulitzer Center in 2016. His first short documentary film won the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) Award 2020 for a best kids film.