“I learned something new from every aspect of my life, I met someone new and the entire process has been exhilarating. All the experiences have been worthwhile and have helped me evolve as a person.”
Photography by Sakib Muhtasim
By Mehrin Mubdi Chowdhury
Arif Hafiz, a popular name among Dhaka’s social circle, dons many hats at a single time. Besides being a busy entrepreneur, he is also a proletarian photographer specialising in the genre of ‘Candid Portrait Photography. When asked how he does so many things at a time, he nonchalantly says, “I just don’t know of any other way; people will multitask because that’s how they function best!”
Hafiz admits that his love for photography rose many years earlier and he kept his passion alive by studying the subject entirely on his own. “I love to study the works of famous photographers. I also spend a considerable amount of my free time online, trying to learn as much as possible about photography. There’s never an end to learning something new every day.”
Any kind of art form can be a liberating aspect for the inventor especially when there are no set rules to follow and no deadlines. For Arif Hafiz, this had been quite true because he works exclusively on his own with no cut-off dates on most of his projects. “I made many mistakes while capturing photographs in the past and I call each of them my learning tools. Photography is second nature to me because it is influenced by my experiences. Hence it comes very naturally to me”.
Hafiz, during the rap session informed that he always tried to follow his dreams and found solace in all his work. During his teens he dreamed of travelling around the world and based on that belief he spent the first twenty years of his corporate life working as the Head of Travel Business for American Express, a travel company. In his twenties he was passionate about food and culinary arts. That very infatuation encouraged him to become a restaurateur and setup Kozmo Lounge. Later on, in his life he became captivated with photography and as a result, today, he set up a press which goes by the name Dhaka Page3 Print Studio and a photography studio named Studio3. Arif wraps up by saying, “I learned something new from every aspect of my life, I met someone new and the entire process has been exhilarating. All the experiences have been worthwhile and have helped me evolve as a person.”