Dawn’s teachings, Bodhgaya, India - across from the Bodhi Tree under which Shakyamuni Buddha was enlightened.
Image: Sonam Zoksang.
HHDL in Ladakh, Jammu & Kashmir.
Wasfia’s fascination with photography started at the age of 13. After her parents divorced, she went off to live with an aunt in Dhaka, the capital city of Bangladesh. It was during this time that she was gifted a used Nikon SLR camera by one of her cousins visiting from abroad. Later on, she pursued a major in Documentary Photography for her undergrad in Edinburgh, Scotland. This was before the digital age, when spending days and weeks processing photographs in the dark-room was still fun.
Her first ever assignment was to cover His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama in his exiled home in the foothills of the Himalayas, where she ended up making a home for years. She has covered a myriad of topics over the years, including the Tibetan refugee diaspora in the Himalayas and elsewhere, the Indigenous peoples of Bangladesh and beyond, women’s stories of struggle in Bangladesh and Himalayas, resistance movements from around the globe, the complex issues surrounding the Everest region, etc. Her photographs have been published by a wide range of publications, including National Geographic Magazine.
Image: Leighton Kelly. Kaza, Spiti Valley, Western Himalayas, 2007.
Lungta (Tibetan Buddhist prayer flags) flutters on the summit of Chogori (King of Mountains, in Balti language) more popularly known as K2, (28251 feet, 8611 meters) Karakoram, Gilgit Baltistan, Northern Pakistan, 8:55 AM, July 22, 2022.
The triangle shadow phenomena seen from the top of Chomolungma (Mother Goddess of the Universe), Everest, Himalayas, Nepal side at Sunrise, 6:26AM, May 26, 2012. While looking down from the top of the world towards Lhotse, fourth highest mountain on Earth, this strange dark shape appeared. It was a perfect triangle merging into this one point on the horizon, like parallel train tracks do. Mighty Chomolungma/Everest is not a triangle by any means, the Mother Goddess of the Universe stretches over a vast expanse. But being on top of the world or any other death-zone mountains, during sunrise and sunset gives a unique vantage point where the sun projects a perfect triangle and spreads it out over the magnificence of the world.
Rescue mission in Arctic cold under the Sun’s halo around Sunset time, though the Sun never really "sets" during summer months so high up in the North. Camp 14, Denali, longest mountain on the planet and highest mountain of North America.
Tota and his Dotara (national instrument of Bangladesh that is played by plucking on two-strings), Charukola, Bangladesh.
Rahul Anand and rest of the members from Bangladesh’s beloved band Joler Gaan performing at the historic Bokul Tola, Dhaka Art University's Faculty of Fine Arts, Bangladesh.
Majority of the present-day band members are Wasfia’s Theatre family since she was 14 years old. www.jolergaan.com.
Saiful Jarnal (top row) and Kanak Aditya (bottom row) enchanting all with their devotional songs to Mother Nature.
A Patrick Morrow/Wasfia Nazreen composite photo of Pat photographing a grizzly bear in Kootenay National Park, British Columbia. The closeup photo of the Mama bear chewing on a dandelion stock in Pat’s rear screen was taken by him and then superimposed on Wasfia’s photograph of him documenting the sow and her cubs out of focus, by nathasha2012, a freelance Photoshop expert at Fiverr.com .
Father of the Seven Summits - Canadian filmmaker, photographer, pioneer explorer, the legendary Pat Morrow mentored and trained Wasfia on all things Seven Summits, including documenting/filming in high-altitude. Photo: Canmore, Alberta, Canada 2012.
“Wasfia portages canoe to Columbia River Valley Wetlands, near Wilmer, B.C." © Pat Morrow.
The Dani (Ndani) tribe and Moni peoples of West Papua.
Wasfia showing aboard the World Navigator, Antarctica, how Storytelling perspectives completely shift depending on who is holding the camera. West Papuans, who have mostly been portrayed by Westerners as “man-eaters” - were given her cameras during her two months-long stay in deep Papuan jungles. Currently a Comic series is in the making based off “Stories by Papuans.”
Storytelling through songs ०॰ of Myths & Revelations ॰०
"Baul singing is meditation in motion, as we sing, dance and play the instruments at the same time. When the heart and soul are soaked in the devotion of the song and the body is in continuous motion, the core enters a meditative state, still and silent. A Baul singer transcends mere aesthetic performance, breaking the barrier of the mundane to soar into a plane of sheer inner experience of spiritual seeking. Baul music takes its source and inspiration from the folk music of Bengal. Like Sufi kalam, these songs are speech oriented. We never say “sing a song,” we say “speak a song,” as these songs are for remembering the spoken truth of realized souls and of pure Love." - Parvathy Baul.
Following the partition of India in 1947, Parvathy Baul's grandparents migrated from East Bengal or more precisely, today's Chittagong region of Bangladesh and settled in West Bengal. She eventually abandoned the norms of her traditional Bengali Brahmin family in pursuit of her spiritual calling, and this image depicts the first time she had arrived back to her roots, to the soils of Bangladesh to celebrate South Asian day for peace, democracy, justice, and human rights organized by One Billion Rising Bangladesh (উদ্যমে উত্তরণে শতকোটি) & Sangat South Asia. The Goddess that she is - she kept the entire Dhaka audience magically in motion while speaking her Truth or the Living Wisdom, which erupts deep inside the soul of the yogic body inspired from realizations in the practitioner's heart. She is seen here solo rendering the oldest style of Baul song and dance, using three traditional instruments, all played at the same time: ektara/gopi yantra (one stringed instrument), duggi/bama (hip drum) and the chilambu/nupur (metallic anklets). This was an incredible evening of celebration and RISING together to end violence against women. November, 2014.
Kanadapara brothel, Tangail, Bangladesh.
A young girl from the neigborhood Wasfia grew up in. Notun Bajar, Khulna, Bangladesh.
Tibetan from inside Tibet, 2009. She risked her life and walked miles of treacherous Himalayan paths for one glimpse of HH the 14th Dalai Lama in-exile and to get his teachings, which is banned by Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in China-controlled Tibet.
Silent vigil against forced sterilization of Tibetan women by CCP. One of the countless tactics used by CCP to systematically eradicate authentic Tibetan race from the face of Earth.
Christiana Sairi Louwa, of the El Molo community, at the tenth session of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII10) held at UN Headquarters, New York from 16-27 May 2011.
Happiness is a state of mind.
An indigenous woman from Khagrachari, Chittagong Hill Tracts, shows how to smoke through a bamboo bong.
Devotion in exile.
Mandala Offering.
Ancient rivers that bind us.
Traffic jam on Everest, Nepal side, 2012.
Tibetan refugees under dawn’s light.
Sherpa people and Nepali high-altitude workers of other ethnicities breaking their backs to help climbers from around the world realize their dreams of reaching the top of the world. Image shows route from camp 2 to 3, on the body of Chomolungma, Mother Goddess of the Universe, more popularly known as Everest.
Offering Dance.
Protest in the Himalayas, 2007.
What’s left of BojjroJogini (Vajrayogini in Sanksrit) - Maha Siddha Atish Dipankar’s home. Bikrampur, Bangladesh.
HH the 17th Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje, In-exile, Dharamsala.
From the publication Between Ashes and Hope: Chittagong Hill Tracts in the Blind Spot of Bangladesh Nationalism, by Naeem Mohaiemen 2010.
“Into Exile: Tibet 1949-2009” a photography exhibition curated by Wasfia Nazreen & Tanvir Murad Topu, organized in partnership with DRIK, that was shut down with pressure from Chinese Embassy in Dhaka, Bangladesh 2009. The exhibition was still shown online while police barricaded the premises and audience waited in the streets.
Curated by Wasfia Nazreen & Tanvir Murad Topu/DRIK, 2009.
Wasfia coming out of VIP terminal upon arrival back to Bangladesh, documenting her journalist colleagues who were waiting for hours to capture her return following the historic climb of Chomolungma/Everest. Dhaka International Airport, June 2012.