[7] After graduating from high school, Paley went to live abroad for one year in Massachusetts in the United States as an exchange student.

[7] After Paley's year in the United States, he returned to France to obtain a bachelor's degree in international business with a focus on Asian affairs at the University of Le Havre.

In 1997, Paley changed course and enrolled in an associate degree program at Parsons School of Design in New York City to study photography.

[8] In 2000, Paley settled in Skardu, a town situated in the mountains of northern Pakistan where he taught English and worked on various media projects for the Aga Khan Foundation related to education, tourism, and culture.

In 2001, while exploring an old branch of the Silk Road on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, Paley encountered Afghan Kyrgyz traders and their yak caravan.

Paley was recently awarded a 2020 National Geographic Explorer grant to continue to document the water crisis and spirituality in south Asia.