Dijana Muminovic poses with two photos from her exhibition called “From Bosnia to Bowling Green."
Dijana Muminovic came to the United States as a refugee in 1997, moving to Bowling Green, Kentucky after the end of the war in her native Bosnia and Herzegovina. She studied photojournalism at Western Kentucky University, and earned her bachelor’s degree in May 2009.
Dijana began her career as a photographer in Bowling Green, where she photographed recent immigrants and observed their struggles to adapt to a new culture. Her work was recognized and awarded by the Hearst National Competition in 2008. Despite the accolades, Dijana says that her proudest moment came in November 2009, when she photographed and interviewed Bosnian women who survived the genocide in Bosnia. The women and their stories had a powerful impact on Dijana, who continues her project of documenting survivors and family members of victims of the Bosnian genocide.
Bekto Hasik mourns his father, who was killed in the Srebrenica genocide when Bekto was four years old.
Dijana spoke and displayed her work at the 16th Commemoration of the Srebrenica Genocide on Capitol Hill. The event paid tribute to the 8,000 Muslims who were systematically murdered by Serbian forces on July 11, 1995 during the 1992-1995 Bosnian War. Although 16 years have passed since the genocide in Srebrenica, the pain persists for the families of the victims. Mass graves continue to be discovered throughout Bosnia, and the struggle to identify and bury those killed will stretch on for years to come. Dijana’s photographs show the raw emotions of the Bosnian people, who mourn the dead but persevere in their determination to find, identify, and give a dignified burial to all the innocent victims of the devastating war.
