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Munem Wasif

Munem Wasif is an artist, curator, and educator based in Dhaka. His work investigates themes of memory, place, and identity, primarily through photography and video.

He has been a co-curator of Chobi Mela since the festival’s eighth edition in 2015, and has curated major survey exhibitions for the festival, including legendary Bangladeshi photographers Anwar Hossain (Chobi Mela VIII, 2015), Nasir Ali Mamun (Chobi Mela IX, 2017), and Rashid Talukder (Chobi Mela X, 2019). Together with Mahbubur Rahman, he also co-curated 1134 – Lives not Numbers (2014), an exhibition paying tribute to the garment workers who lost their lives in the Rana Plaza factory disaster.

Together with Tanzim Wahab, he has also published two editions of Kamra, a Bangla-language anthology of essays on photography. Wasif was a fellow at the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin from 2020 to 2021. In 2023, he received the Robert Gardner Fellowship to pursue research on the critical history of indigo in Bengal.

About Us

Chobi Mela, the first festival of photography in Asia, is one of the most exciting ventures that Drik and Pathshala has initiated. The first Chobi Mela – International Festival of Photography was held in December 2000 – January 2001. It is the most demographically inclusive photo festival in the world and is held every two years in Dhaka.