Gazi Nafis Ahmed is a Bangladeshi scholar and artist working with photography. He was born in November 1982 in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Ahmed comes from the renowned Gazi family, who were one of the Baro Bhuyan in sixteenth century, from the Bhawal Estate now known as Gazipur in Bangladesh.
Biography
From 2012 to 2014, he worked at VII Photo Agency, working with John Stanmeyer. Nafis did his schooling from Bangladesh International Tutorial, a prominent private schools in Bangladesh. 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. Nafis was awarded full scholarship by Istituto Europeo di Design in Madrid to do Masters of Fine Arts in photography. In 2016, Nafis was invited as a scholar at The Center for Social Difference at the prestigious Columbia University. Gazi Nafis Ahmed was awarded at the international Pride Photo Award 2015 held at the historic Oude Kerk, Amsterdam 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". In 2013, Nafis received the Blub Award from Format International Photography Festival in the United Kingdom. He is the youngest Bangladeshi artist to have a solo show at the esteemed Bengal Gallery of Fine Arts. Gazi Nafis Ahmed participated at the Mining Warm Data exhibition. It was curated by Diana Campbell Betancourt, artistic director of DAS. In 2014, artworks by Nafis were featured in the landmark show B/Desh in Dhaka Art Summit, the largest platform for South Asian art, curated by Deepak Ananth. His work has been exhibited in UK, Spain, Netherlands, China, India and Bangladesh. 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 photos have graced the pages of The New York Times, The New Yorker, and The Guardian, among others. In 2013, Nafis organized the first ever photography forum for the pioneer photographers of Bangladesh called “Evolution of Photography” at the Edward M Kennedy Center in Dhaka, which gave them a platform to share their experiences and discuss untold rich history of photography in the country. One of his critically acclaimed serial “Inner Face” addresses the sensitive and precarious issues of human rights of the LGBT community. They convey the subtle sense of challenge in the expressions of the community in a traditional and conservative culture like Bangladesh. The photographs seem to 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.
Gazi Nafis Ahmed represented Bangladesh at the 58th edition of La Biennale di Venezia or Venice Biennale 2019. The venue of the Bangladesh Pavilion is Palazzo Zenobio. The theme of the pavilion is "Thirst" where Gazi Nafis Ahmed displayed his series "Inner Face", as a reminder for the thirst for love, acceptance and knowledge. Five artists participated at the Bangladesh pavilion.
