From Ukraine to Medjugorje
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07 March, 2022
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Who Am I?
Dijana Muminovic is a Bosnian-American award-winning documentary photographer, and is the founder of School of Photography Association in Zenica, the only photo program in Bosnia-Herzegovina that offers photo classes to all community members regardless of age.
I returned to Bosnia for the first time in 2001. I reunited with Tanja, and while on a train ride with her, the traces of the war I survived, my new life in the US, all culminated into one moment when I watched her gentle face reflect in the window. Who am I? Who have I become? A Muslim—my father’s side of family, or Catholic, my Mom’s side. Is religion what will define me? I knew that I did not want to be defined by this word: refugee.
I'm a Refugee
From Ukraine to Međugorje
I carefully listened to my instincts since the conflict began in Ukraine. I felt the women might arrive to Medjugorje, so I packed one Sunday and went there. But no one was there. Just as I was about leave late at night, the first bus full of women and children arrived. I found them at the church. They ran into my arms, hugging and crying. It was a gift I came for.
A voice echoed across the Hungarian-Croatian border: “What is your name?”
I knew this voice was speaking to me because these are the connections we are talking about. When the people we want to photograph decide to fully trust us. It’s the moment they see who we are without our cameras.
“Dijana, what is your name?”
"LILIAN!!"
My TEDx Talk
School of Photography Zenica
The only photo program in Bosnia-Herzegovina that offers photo classes to all community members regardless of age; 7-year-old being the youngest, and 78-year-old, the oldest.
Exhibition in Spain
Jerez de la Frontera is a city in Spain that used be a border between Catholics and Muslims. It was symbolic for Dijana to exhibit there because her work portrays multi-religious groups from in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Five Bosnian women were part of the exhibition supported by the BH Embassy in Spain.
Is a website, a tribute to our moms who are no longer here. Because of a connection with my Mom, I noticed a photography pattern in my work: women and children. This inspired me to reach out to other women, and to speak about the subject. Together, we became voices of women who remember their Moms. Project supported by the Kentucky Foundation for Women.
Dear Mom,
Check out my latest posts.
Exhibition in spain
Jerez de la Frontera, I thought was some small place in Spain that no one has heard of, only to find out, I have never heard of this very important fact: Jerez de la Frontera was the border between Islamic and Christian populations. Suddenly, this......
22 October, 2021
FáTIMA
It was October 13th of 1917, and thousands of people gathered in Fátima in response to a prophecy made by three shepherd children, Lúcia Santos and siblings Francisco and Jacinta Marto, who said they saw Mary. In this moment, Lucia asked Mary to do something......
13 October, 2021
Opening of the exhibition “simply nature”
I was invited to open the exhibition “Simply Nature” by Bosnian-German author Hari M. At the exhibition I saw a childhood neighbor whom I haven’t seen probably since the childhood, and we matched. It was very funny....
13 July, 2021
Guest speaker on multi-ethnicity in bih
Rotary Club Zenica and its Rotaract, with the support of USAID, PRO-Buducnost and CRS, organized an event in which I had the honor to speak about multi-ethnicity in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Together with colleagues, we discussed this subject from different points of view. Part of my presentation......
11 July, 2021
KENTUCKY FOUNDATION FOR WOMEN GRANT
I received a grant from Kentucky Foundation for Women to tell personal stories how women are affected by the loss of their mothers through a photographic exhibition and a panel....
19 October, 2020
MY TEDX TALK
"What is your name?" I knew this voice was speaking to me because these are exactly the connections we are talking about. This becomes a decisive moment if the people we want to photograph will fully trust us and feel safe around us, or not. This is the moment people see who we are without our cameras....
19 October, 2020
Photo On the Book Cover
A photograph I took in Srebrenica appears on Christina Lamb’s new book “Our Bodies, Their Battlefield”. Christina is the co-author of “I am Malala”....
15 October, 2020