DHAKA: Gazi Nafis Ahmed, an artist from Bangladesh, was awarded the third prize at the international Pride Photo Award 2015 held recently in the historic Old Church in Amsterdam.

There were 3,800 entries from 60 countries around the world. Pride Photo Award is considered to be the most prestigious contest for photography about Gender Diversity.

Nafis won in ‘Stories of Love and Pride’ category for his series ‘Inner Face’, which addresses the sensitive and precarious issues of human rights of the LGBT community.

The series convey the subtle sense of challenge in the expressions of the community in a country with traditional and conservative culture like Bangladesh.

Gazi Nafis Ahmed studied in ‘Art & Design’ at 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.

He was awarded full scholarship by the IstitutoEuropeo di Design in Madrid for Fine Arts in Photography.

At the ceremony, Vince Aletti, photo critic at the New Yorker, and member of the jury said, ‘What attracted me most in the winning entries are the stories that come from a personal point of view: original ways of storytelling, whether art photography or documentary’.

Jury chairman Frank Kalero added, ‘It is good to see that the professional community of photographers is starting to take Pride Photo Award seriously, they see that it is a good way to legitimate and share the work they are doing’.

‘There was such a wide range of subjects from all over the world, and we were happy to see that many of them were made by insiders: people telling their own stories. Those are often the strongest entries.’

The Pride Awards exhibition, officially opened on the same day as award giving ceremony at Old Church in Amsterdam, will continue till October 25.

BDST: 1621 HRS, OCT 04, 2015
RR