Nasrollah Kasraian was born in Khorram Abad in 1944. He is the son of Kokab Mehrabi and Asadollah Kasraian. His father owned a bookstore and this made Nasrollah close to books and reading. His younger brother, Qodratollah, was also a photographer and died in 2016. Kasraian has a diploma in mathematics and a law degree from Tehran University. Before the revolution, he was in prison for four years and according to himself, during this time he was able to do many studies in photography. He married Ziba Arshi, who studied in anthropology. In many of his books, he has used Arshi's analysis texts, and this has added to the validity and authority of these books.

Kasraian held his first solo exhibition in 1977 at the Iran-France Association. By traveling to different regions of Iran, especially non-urban and rural areas, Nasrollah Kasraian has collected a series of photos related to the tribes, culture and customs of the people of different regions of Iran, including Kurds, Turkmen and Baloch. He went to Paris in 1984. The result of this trip was the publication of the book " L'Iran Rural ". His other two books named "The Nomadic People of Iran" were published in Oxford University in 2002 and the book "Kurdistan" in Germany in 1991. In 2019, he presented a collection titled "Women" in Aaran projects.