He was born in 1987 Baku and graduated from Azerbaijan State University of Culture and Arts alumni.
In 2013 Karimov worked for Associated Press, subsequently starting his career as a freelance photographer.
2013 Freedom House auctioned off photographs from more than 20 countries, including Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Belarus, China, Russia, South Sudan, and Syria.
The images, taken by amateur and professional photographers, were chosen as finalists from among hundreds of submissions to Freedom House's second annual photo contest,[1] Karimov covered the War in Donbas, and Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
[citation needed] 2020 Karimov's photo is included in the 2020 annual report, Associated Press photographers captured a world in distress.