Mohammad Rakibul Hasan (born 29 September 1977), widely known as M R Hasan, is a Bangladeshi journalist, documentary photographer, photojournalist, filmmaker, and visual artist whose work has gained international recognition for its powerful engagement with climate change, political violence, and the Rohingya refugee crisis. Working predominantly in black and white, Hasan’s visual storytelling combines investigative depth with artistic rigor, positioning him among the most influential South Asian documentary photographers of his generation.
Born in Sherpur, a small town in northern Bangladesh, Hasan grew up as the youngest of five children in a middle-class Muslim family. His early life was shaped by literature and art; a well-stocked home library nurtured his love for reading, while his childhood passion for painting and Bengali poetry laid the foundation for a lifelong engagement with visual and literary expression. This early immersion in culture later informed the contemplative and human-centered quality of his photographic work.
Hasan was introduced to photography while studying Film & Video Production at UBS Film School (Sydney Film School), University of Sydney. After returning to Bangladesh, he pursued photography professionally and went on to receive a full scholarship from World Press Photo (WPP) to complete a Postgraduate Diploma in Photojournalism at Ateneo de Manila University in the Philippines. His academic training also includes a Certificate of Higher Education in History of Art from the University of Oxford, a Director’s Fellowship at the International Center of Photography (ICP), New York, and a BA (Hons) in Photography from Falmouth University. This interdisciplinary education has enabled Hasan to bridge journalism, fine art, and contemporary visual practices.
Hasan’s work has been published and broadcast by leading international media outlets, including the BBC, and has appeared widely in newspapers, magazines, books, and online platforms. His major photo essays—I am Rohingya, The Last Savings, Salt, Wave, and Park Life—explore themes of displacement, environmental injustice, survival, and dignity. His long-term project I am Rohingya stands as a landmark body of work documenting the lives of Rohingya refugees, while The Last Savings examines the human cost of climate change and economic precarity.
In addition to his photographic practice, Hasan is the founder and administrator of Bangladeshi Photographers (BP), a photography community he established in 2005 that has since become one of the country’s most influential platforms for photographers.
His work has been widely exhibited across Asia, Europe, Australia, and the United States. Notable exhibitions include solo presentations at Belgrade Photo Month (Serbia), Hotel Le Méridien Dhaka, and group shows at the Bronx Documentary Center (USA), Getty Images Gallery (London), Photo Basel Festival (Switzerland), and Environmental Photographer of the Year Exhibition (UK), among many others. His exhibitions often combine documentary urgency with conceptual and digital art practices.
Hasan’s contributions have been recognized with numerous international awards. He received the Lucie Awards Discovery of the Year (2018) and the One World Media Awards (2022). He was also honored with the 23rd Human Rights Press Awards for The Looted Honor, a series on sexual violence against Rohingya women, awarded by the Foreign Correspondents’ Club Hong Kong, Amnesty International, and the Hong Kong Journalists Association. His accolades further include awards from Budapest International Foto Awards, International Photography Awards (IPA), Px3 Paris, Bar-Tur Photo Award, and grants from the Global Research Programme on Inequality (GRIP) in partnership with the University of Bergen.
Through a career that spans journalism, fine art, and education, Mohammad Rakibul Hasan continues to document some of the most urgent human and environmental crises of our time, using photography not only as evidence, but as a means of empathy, resistance, and historical record.
