Basri Marzuki became interested in photojournalism when he worked for a local newspaper in Palu, Central Sulawesi, in 2001 and that jump-started his career. He worked as a photojournalist for a number of Indonesian news agencies foreign photo agencies including the Jakarta Post, CNN Indonesia, Wall Street Journal, and BBC. In 2007, Basri received a Panna Photo Institute scholarship from World Press Photo (WPP) to study photojournalism. He has also won a number of photo competition in the country. The World Bank listed his name as one of the photo contributors for the implementation of the Indonesian government's post-reform Direct Cash Assistance (BLT) report. Basri is also active in a number of professional photo organisations, both at local and national levels. He was the chair of the Indonesian Photojournalist (PFI) Palu for the 2008-2017 period.