Nicolas Tikhomiroff was born in Paris to Russian émigré parents in 1927. After finishing his military service, Tikhomiroff found work in the darkroom of a fashion photographer. Using a Rolleiflex, he began to take photographs for many magazines, and joined Magnum in 1959. He has contributed to an important Magnum project on World Cinema, as well as numerous photo stories on subjects such as the Algerian War, Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos.