Gazi Nafis Ahmed

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Gazi Nafis Ahmed
Born
Nafis Ahmed

(1982-11-21) 21 November 1982 (age 41)
Dhaka, Bangladesh
NationalityBangladeshi
OccupationArtist
Years active2012–present
Websitegazinafis.com

Gazi Nafis Ahmed is a Bangladeshi scholar and artist working with photography and video.

Early life and education[edit]

Ahmed was born in November 1982 in Dhaka, Bangladesh. He attended the Bangladesh International Tutorial school. He studied art and design at the Sir John Cass Department of Art, Media & Design of London Guildhall University in London and photography at the Danish School of Media and Journalism in Denmark. Ahmed was awarded full scholarship by Istituto Europeo di Design in Madrid to do Masters of Fine Arts in photography. In 2016, Ahmed was invited as a scholar at The Center for Social Difference at Columbia University.[1]

Photography career[edit]

From 2012 to 2014, he worked at VII Photo Agency, working with John Stanmeyer.[2]

Ahmed was awarded at the Pride Photo Award 2015, held at the historic Oude Kerk, Amsterdam.[3] Pride Photo Award is about gender diversity. Ahmed won in the "Stories of Love and Pride" category for his series "Inner Face". In 2013, Ahmed received the Blub Award from Format International Photography Festival in the United Kingdom. He had a solo show at Bengal Gallery of Fine Arts.[4][5] Ahmed participated at the Mining Warm Data exhibition. It was curated by Diana Campbell Betancourt, artistic director of DAS.[6] In 2014, his artworks were featured in the show B/Desh at Dhaka Art Summit, curated by Deepak Ananth. Some of the organizations he has worked with are International Finance Corporation of World Bank Group, Medicins Sans Frontieres, UNAIDS, UNDP, WFP, Save The Children. His photographs have been published in The New York Times, The New Yorker, and The Guardian.[7][8]

In 2013, Ahmed organized a photography forum for photographers of Bangladesh called "Evolution of Photography" at the Edward M Kennedy Center in Dhaka, which gave a platform to share experiences and discuss the history of photography in the country.[9][10]

One of his series, "Inner Face",[11][12][13] addresses the sensitive and precarious issues of human rights of the LGBT community. The work conveys the subtle sense of challenge in the expressions of the community in a traditional and conservative culture like Bangladesh. The photographs[14][15] carry that sense of "conquering" social taboos, of trying to become free of the manacles that tie the inborn or acquired identity to social norms.[16][17][18][19]

Ahmed was one of five artists that represented Bangladesh at the 58th Venice Biennale in 2019.[20] The venue of the Bangladesh Pavilion was Palazzo Zenobio and its theme was "Thirst".[21] Ahmed displayed "Inner Face", as a reminder for the thirst for love, acceptance and knowledge.

Family[edit]

Ahmed comes from the Gazi family, who were one of the Baro Bhuyan (Twelve Zaminders of Bengal) in sixteenth century, from the Bhawal Estate now known as Gazipur in Bangladesh.[22]

His uncle was Gazi Shahabuddin Ahmed.[23]

References[edit]

  1. ^ "Reframing Gendered Violence". Columbia University Homepage. Archived from the original on 2017-06-20. Retrieved 2016-10-08.
  2. ^ "Innate Identities". The Daily Star.
  3. ^ "Nafis wins Pride Photo Awards". The Daily Star.
  4. ^ "Photos: 'Made in Bangladesh' Takes Behind-the-Scenes Look at Garment Workers". Asia Society.
  5. ^ "Cauldron of creativity: exploring artists' relationship between spaces and memories". Deccan Chronicle.
  6. ^ "Mining Warm Data". Dhaka Art Summit. Archived from the original on 2016-10-21. Retrieved 2016-02-11.
  7. ^ Homa Khaleeli. "Inside Bangladesh's garment factories: life and work in a dangerous industry". the Guardian.
  8. ^ "What They Were Thinking". The New York Times Magazine.
  9. ^ "Blog Snacks - Jeff Gantner - Writer". jeffgantnerwriter.com. Archived from the original on 2015-05-18. Retrieved 2015-04-15.
  10. ^ "The garment factories of Bangladesh by Gazi Nafis Ahmed". Tasveer Journal. Archived from the original on 2015-03-19.
  11. ^ Sean O'Hagan. "Passion and persecution:photographing Bangladesh's outcasts". The Guardian.
  12. ^ Harshini Vakkalanka. "Body of evidence". The Hindu.
  13. ^ "A Rare, Intimate Glimpse Into Bangladesh's LGBTQ Community Through Gazi Nafis Ahmed's Lens". Homegrown.
  14. ^ "'Happy as we are': Bangladesh's hidden LGBT community – in pictures". The Guardian.
  15. ^ Shahana Yasmin. "This Photo Series Takes Us into the Gritty Life of Bangladesh's LGBT Community". Vagabomb.
  16. ^ "INNATE IDENTITIES : Lives of hermaphrodites captured through lens". New Age. Dhaka.
  17. ^ "South Asia in focus: 5 curated shows at Dhaka Art Summit 2014". artradarjournal.com. Archived from the original on 2015-03-21. Retrieved 2015-04-15.
  18. ^ Bibi van der Zee. "I want to help the LGBT community in Bangladesh make their voices heard". The Guardian.
  19. ^ Eva Fernández del Campo. "GAZI NAFIS AHMED: El Bosque Y Sus Pobres Hadas". El Estado Mental.
  20. ^ "5 Bangladeshi artists to participate in Venice Biennale". New Age.
  21. ^ "Bangladesh's 'Thirst' at 58th Venice Art Biennale". The Daily Star.
  22. ^ Administrator. "Gazi Nafis Ahmed, Artist". gazinafis.com. Archived from the original on 2019-06-04. Retrieved 2015-04-15.
  23. ^ Ahmed, Gazi Nafis (1 August 2017). "Gazi Shahabuddin Ahmed obituary". the Guardian. Retrieved 2021-10-18.


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