Munem Wasif’s image-based works explore the notion of trace in its various forms. His complex installations often mix photographs with moving images, archive documents, or collected paraphernalia to reveal notions of impermanence and insecurity.
Spurred by an awareness of current challenges, Wasif investigates topics that often resonate in the global conversation. His working methodology based on long-term immersion, close contact with his subjects and systematic repetition eschews facile interpretations to convey layered, sensitive, and sometimes contradictory observations on complex issues such as food sovereignty, labor exploitation, or borders and migration.
In 2008, he was awarded the Visa d'or de la Ville de Perpignan Rémi Ochlik in Visa pour l'Image. Following that, he was awarded the Prix Pictet Commission for his work on the water crisis in the northwest region of Bangladesh. He also won the F25 award from Fabrica, a research center on communication, Treviso, for his long-term project In God We Trust, exploring the intersections of culture and the religion Islam in Bangladesh.
His work has been exhibited at the Centre Pompidou, Palais de Tokyo, Victoria and Albert Museum, Musée de l'Elysée, Sharjah and Gwangju Biennale.
He is on the advisory board of Pathshala South Asian Media Institute and co-curator of the Chobi Mela International Festival of Photography (editions VIII to X). Munem Wasif received a Robert Gardener fellowship in 2023 to work on the critical history of indigo in Bengal.
World Press Photo Involvement:
2024 Joop Swart Masterclass mentor
2019 Joop Swart Masterclass mentor
2007 Joop Swart Masterclass participant
Munem Wassif on Social Media:
Instagram: @munemwasif
