Mustafah Abdulaziz: A Fifteen-Year Photographic Project on the Water Around the World

Photography Project

As the main global risk, the water crisis affects all continents. The photographers all around the world are aware of the problem and with their work contribute to possible solutions for water pollution.  A young photographer, Mustafah Abdulaziz, born New Yorker, started his own photography project and shown us how people interact with this, irreplaceable source of life.

The Nomadic Life of Mustafah Abdulaziz

Mustafah Abdulaziz was born in 1986, New York City, USA. He was only 17 when he took his first photos. He was working as a contract photographer for the Wall Street Journal, but after he left photojournalism, Mustafah Abdulaziz moved to Berlin, searching for a place that provides different sensibility than NY.  The photographer’s idea was to do something worthwhile. He decided to start his own project in 2012 – called simply the Water project, and tell a story about the water crisis. The photographer idea includes work in 32 countries for 15 years to show water issues and how people deal with water pollution.

The Journey of a Documentary Photographer

Mustafah first visited Somalia and from there continued the journey. His documentary photography has some specific aspects. First, Mustafah documents our relationship with water using Japanese film camera Mamiya 7. Apart from showing issues of health problems of unclean water, the photos also represent people’s ordinary life along the Ganges, Nile and Yangtze River. The photographer’s creation is impressive. He spends a lot of time waiting for the perfect scenery. He waits for hours to catch a perfect sky or colors of water.

You’re more a surveyor, somebody who is watching things happen.

This, water stories, are supported by the United Nations, WaterAid, WWF, VSCO, and Google, and he has been reviewed by Phaidon, Monopol and published in Der Spiegel, The New Yorker, TIME and The Guardian.