Dijana Muminović lived with her family in their hometown of Zenica throughout the duration of the war, often living in the basement of their house for shelter.  After a short stay in New York, the family relocated to Bowling Green in 1997, where she started school in the 8th grade.  After high school, Muminović was uncertain about what she wanted to do until a geography advisor at WKU pushed her to articulate her passions.  They included travel and exploration, telling stories, and taking photographs. It was then that she began to pursue photojournalism, earning a degree from WKU and a Master of Arts in Visual Communications from Ohio University in 2013.  She explains,

“When I actually felt like I was a photojournalist is when I went back [to Bosnia] … I had my first solo exhibition here [in Bowling Green] in 2009 and it was to answer a question why so many Bosnians are in [this] town.  So, the way to show that I had to find war survivors…learning their stories… it was a total different perspective…a lot of what I was hearing there was what I’d been watching on television in the basement.”

Throughout her time as a student and into the present day, Muminović professional passion continues to be shedding greater light on refugee and human rights issues.  After her 2009 WKU installation, two more exhibits followed on campus as well as one produced at Museum of City Zenica, her hometown in Bosnia.  In 2011 Muminović also had a solo exhibition of her images at the US Congress in Washington DC.  It was also during her years at WKU that she began documenting the lives of refugees and immigrants more broadly.  She shared,

“…while driving around Bowling Green on one assignment I noticed a woman from Burma…I felt a connection and that I was documenting someone who I once was.” In September 2015, Muminović spent time documenting Syrian refugees in Croatia, and throughout 2016 presented her work on Syrian migration, war, peace, and photojournalism at Allegheny College, Ohio University, and University of South Florida. She has twice received grants from the Kentucky Foundation for Women to further her work.