TEHRAN – Hasht Cheshmeh Gallery in the central Iranian city of Kashan is playing host to an exhibition displaying photos of the 2015 Rohingya refugee crisis by American photojournalist Paula Bronstein.

A selection of 28 photos by Bronstein have been selected to be showcased at the exhibit, Hassan Roshanbakht, the director of the gallery, said on Saturday in a press release.

The collection features the hard life and the sad conditions facing the Muslims of Rohingya over the past few years, and the photographer intends to draw the attention of the world to their pain and sorrow, he added.

The exhibit will be running until September 3 at the gallery located at 44, Fifth Mofasser Alley, Molla Fatollah St.

“Since 2012 I have witnessed the discrimination and persecution of the Rohingya community, documenting their situation in Myanmar and Bangladesh,” Paula once said.

“The Buddhist majority in Myanmar struggles to deal with a deeply rooted hatred towards the Muslim ethnic minority, a hatred that has been simmering for years,” she added.

“They consider them to be illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and deny them the right to citizenship,” she said.

“In western Rakhine State, the government went further, severely restricting their freedom of movement, creating an apartheid system with no access to education, civil service positions or even basic health care,” she noted.

Bronstein’s many nominations and awards span decades and represent only a small space in what is simply a lifetime of phenomenal frontline news and documentary photography across the globe. 

She sits alongside the most important female photographers of our time, as a multiple nominee and award winner.

Winner of contests, including the Pulitzer, Pictures of the Year International, the National Press Photographer’s Association, she has judged for the World Press Photo Award, exhibited extensively, and given interviews herself for the media in the U.S., Australia and across Asia. 

Bronstein worked as a staff member for major U.S. newspapers including the Hartford Courant and the Chicago Tribune before moving overseas to Bangkok. She then went on to work for Getty Images as a staff photographer for over a decade. 

Her images have been published in almost every globally recognized publication. Her work reflects a dedicated humanitarian and visual war correspondent finding moments nobody else would dare look for. 

She continues to photograph presidents and kings, natural disasters, political turmoil and conflict, and always the most impoverished and vulnerable people on this earth, from Mongolia to Afghanistan and Africa. Bronstein currently works freelance.

She has displayed her photo collections in several exhibits across the world. 

Photo: A photo by American photojournalist Paula Bronstein on the Rohingya Muslim refugees.

RM/MMS/YAW