Adnan R. Khan was born in Rawalpindi, Pakistan and raised in Toronto, Canada. He studied English literature and French at the University of Toronto (Trinity College) and learned photography under the mentorship of the indomitable Rob Allen. He fell into foreign correspondence by accident after going on a camping trip in 2001 with the late, great Greg Stott.

Adnan speaks English and Urdu fluently and has a working knowledge of French and Turkish. He currently lives in Haarlem, The Netherlands and Istanbul, Turkey.