I’m Mon, I'm a Bangladeshi Photographer and Filmmaker based in Deal, Kent, I've collaborated with startups, agencies, and individuals to create campaigns with a little extra sauce. At Studio Mon, we're all about offering creative services that help anyone express their narrative visually. My journey began in the culinary world as a chef, making my work predominantly food and beverage focused. I'm now diving into the worlds of fashion and documentary. Beyond the commercial projects, my personal projects dive deep into themes of identity, culture, and representation. I'm fascinated by what makes us unique and regularly produce short films that profile other creators, exploring their crafts and contributions to our world.
Behind the lens
M&Co - Where is your favourite place to shoot and why?
Monwar - I’d have to say London, ever since moving out of London to the Kent Coast I often miss it. I miss how multicultural it is, the hustle and bustle, the way the sun wraps around the city and creates these pockets of contrast and texture. There’s always a great shot to be had.
M&Co - Who are your biggest inspirations?
Monwar - Storytellers, mavericks for their industry, I’m Asma Khan’s biggest fan! Her story is unbelievable, she reminds me of my mum!
M&Co - What drove you to start your own studio?
Monwar - I’ve been freelancing for a while now, I always had a side hustle while I was in full time employment so after doing photography and filmmaking full time for the past 2 years it was naturally the next step. I want to be able to take on bigger projects, take on more projects and really expand my reach and for me to do that, I need to be able to trust others to take on some of the workload, collaborate and form a wicked team!
M&Co - What was your biggest challenge going freelance?
Monwar - The fear and anxiety that comes with saying goodbye to financial stability and saying hello to the unknown. That was my biggest challenge, Even when things were going well, I had monthly retainers, consistent work coming in, I still had those random thoughts of “what if work stops coming in”. I’ve learnt to manage those thoughts now and I just roll with it, even if work slows down, I know it’ll be okay.
M&Co - What do you think the upcoming trends for 2024 are going to be?
Monwar - I can see docu style video series becoming a big thing this year, I’ve had a lot of brands reach out to create a video series which is more candid interview vibe.
M&Co - What is your biggest take away over the past year?
Monwar - That sometimes it’s okay to say no to projects, I would always say yes to everything that came in even if I knew it wouldn’t make it happy, it was a paycheck at the end of the day. I really consider every project that comes in now and ask myself a list of questions before responding. Will this project make me happy is the main question, I’m all about prioritising my mental health over cash money.
M&Co - What's next for you?
Monwar - I’ve got some great campaigns lined up with some wicked brands but aside from that, I’m in the process of making some short films, short documentaries telling the story of makers; ceramicists, garment workers, artists. This is something which has been a WIP for a while now, hopefully this year I can release something!
M&Co - Your top 3 inspo resources to visit? (websites, social media pages, magazines, whatever you like)
Monwar -
1 has to be Frameset.app It’s just a huge collection of video frames from movies, ads etc where I take a lot of inspiration from. This platform helps me with a lot of Pre Production, Story Boarding, Moodboards.
2 is Epidemic Sound which I use for all my royalty free music and sound effects. I often listen to music on here which inspires a certain story, a certain shot I want to create. It’s great for sound effects too. Most of my sound design assets are from Epidemic Sound.
