Abir Abdullah is an independent photographer, photo editor, and educator.
Abdullah teaches various photography courses at Alliance Française de Dhaka in Bangladesh. He is also an experienced photo editor, having worked for several years at the most circulated Bangla newspaper, The Daily Prothom Alo.
After a career change, Abdullah studied at the Bangladesh Photographic Institute in 1993 and then at Pathshala Media Institute, earning a diploma in photojournalism in 1999. Following this, the World Press Photo Foundation supported him in a three-year seminar (Pleasure of Life).
Abdullah worked as a staff photographer at Drik PLC (1996 to 2005), was a Founding Partner of DrikNews (2006), Principal of Pathshala (2018-2020), and served as a Jury Member of the World Press Photo in 2011.
His photography has received numerous awards, including the Mother Jones Award in 2001 for his work on Freedom Fighters (Veterans of the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971) and the 1st Prize National Disaster Category NPPA Best of Photojournalism Award in 2008. His work continues to gain recognition. In 2013, he was the Alexia Foundation Professional Grants winner and the recipient of the Leica Reportage prize at the Vevey International Photography Awards in Switzerland.
Abdullah’s work has been published in the New York Times, the New Yorker, Time, the Guardian, The Telegraph, Stern, Der Spiegel, the New Internationalist Magazine, and many other international publications. He was one of the photographers featured in the book BLINK, published by Phaidon, featuring 100 photographers worldwide, and in the book titled New Stories commissioned and published by World Press Photo.
