Mustafah Abdulaziz
GRANTEE
Mustafah Abdulaziz is an American documentary photographer based in Berlin, Germany. For three years he traveled across the United States photographing his country's identity and its divergence from the classic American ideal.
To date, his medium format 6x7 photographs have been commissioned by Le Monde to document the culture in the American heartland as well as by the MuralArts Program of Philadelphia. The latter commission looked at people struggling to overcome heroin addiction and social stigma. These photographs, made at a methadone clinic in one of the city's most dangerous areas, were then exhibited to the public outside Philadelphia's City Hall. Over a million people commuted through the space during the month-long exhibition.
His project "Water Is Gold" focuses on the global issue of water, the impact of unsafe sources on populations and ultimately on how we use and misuse our most precious resource.
In 2010 Mustafah worked as the first contract photographer for The Wall Street Journal. His work has been published in Newsweek, The New York Times, CNN, M Le Magazine du Monde, The Financial Times and National Geographic Poland. In 2012 he received an honorable mention for Deeper Perspective Photographer of the Year from the Lucie Awards and was named one of the 30 emerging photographers to watch by PDN magazine.
