Shaan was born in 1990 in Melbourne, Australia.
Shaan's mother was born in Pakistan and Shaan's father hailed from Bangladesh. Growing up, Shaan found passion in youth engagement and community leadership and in 2008 was selected to join various multi-faith leadership program run by different universities around Melbourne.
Shaan completed a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Melbourne in 2010, majoring in Linguistics and Applied Linguistics. The focus of this study involved Intercultural Communication and Socio-Linguistics.
In 2015, Shaan completed a Juris Doctor (post-graduate law) degree from Melbourne Law School. Shaan completed specialisations in International Human Rights Law, Public International Law, Environmental Law, Institutions in International Law (Geneva), Street Law and Advocacy.
During this time, Shaan also worked with different Community Legal Centres around Victoria and the Australian Red Cross's International Humanitarian Law Program. Shaan was the recipient of the Edward Walter Outhwaite Prize for International Human Rights Law from the University of Melbourne in 2015.
Shaan's passion has always been sharing stories - sharing the stories of landscapes, faces, gatherings and connections. His passion for photography from a very young age has taken him from India to Morocco, Borneo to Central Australia and many places in between.
Shaan also has a keen interest in event, design, architecture photography and portraiture.
During September 2015 and early 2016, Shaan photographed the refugee crisis on the island of Lesvos in Greece. In 2016, he worked with refugees in the Bekaa Valley, Lebanon. In early 2017, Shaan spent time in remote Iran on a project entitled Faces of Iran. Crossing the land border into Iraqi Kurdistan, Shaan worked with local NGOs to distribute aid to Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) from the offensive in Mosul. Following this, Shaan returned to Lebanon to continue coordinating volunteers and photographing for local NGOs.
In 2018, Shaan completed a Yoga Teacher Training in Nepal, and worked with CASD Nepal to facilitate development of remote schools and villages, photographing different projects.
Shaan currently combines his study of Law with his love for storytelling and work as a Photographer, and is based in Copenhagen, Denmark.
All images contained remain the property of Shaan R. Ali and are subject to copyright protection. Please enquire should you wish to use or reproduce any of these images.
You can find more of Shaan's work on Facebook here.