"It is the winning image of a food photography contest, but there is not a meal in sight. Instead, child refugees stand in a row with empty bowls in their hands. Taken by documentary photographer KM Asad, the image entitled After Exodus captures Rohingya children in Cox’s Bazaar, Bangladesh, as they queue to receive food from a non-profit. The image is from 2017, the year when the Rohingya crisis was thrust back into the global spotlight after at least 500,000 individuals fled violence from Myanmar to Bangladesh in the span of a month. Last month, Asad’s image was recognised as the overall winner for Pink Lady Food Photographer of the Year awards in the UK, selected among 9,000 entries from more than 70 countries. The photographer, who lives and works in Dhaka, will receive £5,000 (Dh22,980) as prize. Asad says he has had his eye on the major photography award for the past two years. When Pink Lady added the category of Politics of Food, which looks at issues such as production, sustainability and hunger, Asad believed that his image could resonate. “Every corner of the world, there are people waiting for food. It’s very important to show how food is related to politics,” he says. The plight of the Rohingyas – a Muslim ethnic minority in Myanmar – is one that Asad has been following for years. In 2012, he accompanied a friend to the south-east of Bangladesh and began documenting the influx of refugees there. A sliver of river called the Naf separates the two countries, and the Rohingya, driven out by Myanmar’s army, brave crossing it to seek safety..."