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Growing up as an introvert who often shied away from conversations, Zobayer Joati frequently used the camera app on his Samsung Galaxy to visualize his perspective of the world. Photography was initially a hobby for Joati, but he persisted in his creative dream.

“In my class, in my family, in my family gatherings, I was invisible everywhere. Photography gave me respect. Photography gave me an identity as a human being,” Joati said. “I used (my) camera as a tool to get close to people.”

He first gained recognition on Facebook through photography competitions before earning international awards, including the 2022 and 2023 Awards of Excellence from Asia’s Pictures of the Year. Winning these awards prompted Joati to consider photography as a career after he graduated with an engineering degree and lived at home unemployed in Bangladesh with his parents.

Joati, now a Syracuse University graduate student working toward a master’s in multimedia, photography and design, was awarded the 2025 Kit C. King Scholarship from the National Press Photographers Foundation for photographic talent earlier this month. The scholarship is given to 14 undergraduate or graduate photography students nationally in honor of photojournalists like Kit C. King.

As part of the scholarship, Joati will receive $2,000, a professional lighting setup and microphone from Saramonic, a camera bag from Think Tank and a new camera from SONY. Outside of the material benefits, Joati said the Kit C. King Award is focused on recognizing talent in documentary journalism as a means to represent social, cultural and gender issues through photography.

Joati submitted three projects for the award: “We Live to Fight,” “God’s Plan” and “Aging with Grace.” He said his inspiration for the projects stems from his interest in advocating for underrepresented communities.

Each project was a reflection of communities often overlooked by the mainstream media, and the mutual trauma they experienced, that Joati said he connects with.

His most recent project, “We Live to Fight,” honors the Bangladeshi martial arts community formed to protect villagers from lathial groups sent by landowners to forcibly collect taxes. The project captures the journey of martial arts foundations like the Bangladesh Judo and Karate Federation and the Bangladesh Martial Arts Confederation after the Bangladesh liberation in 1971 through black and white photography.

“Curiosity made me start this project,” Joati said. “For three years, I reached out to the players, then the trainers, then the instructors, then all the way to federations and confederations, and I interviewed some of the pioneer martial artists who brought martial arts to Bangladesh.”

Joati’s photography skills grew after he was selected as an Alexia Scholar in May 2023 and received the Alexia Visionary Grant. He then went on to obtain his professional diploma at the CounterFoto Institute in December 2023 as a documentary photographer.

Through these distinctions, Joati continued working on independent projects before he received an opportunity to continue his photography education at SU’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications.

Bruce Strong, an associate professor at SU and Newhouse’s Alexia Endowed Chair, complimented Joati’s dedication to photography.

“The need for people who can accurately and skillfully tell compelling visual stories continues to grow, and my hope is that Joati continues to pursue his passion of being the best visual storyteller he can be,” Strong said.

Strong described Joati as a dedicated and motivated storyteller, saying his impact has been felt throughout the professional photography community and among his peers.

Dalin Intharath, Joati’s friend and a fellow graduate student earning a master’s in entrepreneurship and emerging enterprises, said Joati is a reliable friend. He praised his hardworking and driven personality as a photographer, and attributed Joati’s difficult upbringing in Bangladesh as a testament to his strength.

“To me, he represents a profound sense of courage,” Intharath said. “He is an individual who has faced numerous challenges, and instead of allowing those experiences to harden him, he has
transformed them into something genuine and restorative. That demonstrates true strength.”

Liam Kennedy, another friend of Joati’s and a sophomore majoring in visual communications, said Joati brings emotion to his photography that helps connect the viewer with the photo.

Kennedy said through the emotions Joati brings out in his photos, viewers with similar experiences to Joati can easily connect with his work.

“He has this innate ability to channel all of the joy and pain that this world has to offer which, in turn, helps those who have led similar lives to see themselves in the world,” Kennedy said.

Even with the Kit C. King scholarship and having won over 15 national awards throughout his career, Joati emphasized the difficulty of making a stable income through his photography alone. He said the grants and other funding opportunities he’s earned from competitions have helped him, but aren’t enough to maintain a stable income while living in the United States.

Joati said he wants to continue uplifting marginalized communities while trying to generate a steady income, and hopes to balance both priorities. Until then, he said he’ll continue to work on his master’s project, titled “Metamorphosis of Faith.” It’s an exploration of people’s personal experiences with religious conversions in Syracuse.

The topic was especially interesting to Joati as he experienced firsthand how the political environment growing up in Bangladesh often used religion as a tool to sway people into inflicting harm on others.

“My familial traumas and my observation of religions used as a major political tool all over the world for global war and conflicts made me agnostic,” Joati said. “Now, as a media person, I want to investigate other people’s reasons why they convert their faith and religion.”

Joati said his personal experiences will continue to shape his work and influence his photography.

Joati said he will continue to use photography as an outlet to connect with people and hopes to fulfill his role as a documentary photographer, inspired by the stories and experiences he’s had with people around the world.

“You have to be empathetic about the stories you cover, because not many people are privileged enough financially and socially.” Joati said. “So you have to recognize your own privilege as a media person, respect other people, and respect the stories that you cover and work with.”

Disclaimer: Liam Kennedy is a contributing photographer for The Daily Orange. He did not influence the editorial content of this article.

Published on April 24, 2025 at 1:35 am