Waqas Manzoor

Waqas is a multidisciplinary artist from Lahore, Pakistan, whose art practices blend theatre, performative storytelling, and photography. He is the founder and director of a social enterprise named دیپ ناؤ (Deep Now)  which works to provide education through the medium of arts. He completed his MPhil in Educational Leadership and Management from Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS), Pakistan, where he also received the Shaila and Tahir Andrabi Leadership & Service Award in 2020. In 2023, he received the received Prince Claus Seeds Cultural Practitioner Award. Waqas is a fellow at VII Academy and an alumnus of the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop International 2023 .

In the medium of digital media art, his work revolves around photographic and documentary projects. He has been working on a long-term documentary project on the folk toys of Punjab. Waqas also worked on a documentary for the Lahore Biennale Foundation’s Virtual Museum titled “Dastan-e-Urdu,” which documented 75 years of Urdu in Pakistan. One of his photographs was published in the 14th edition of Flash #14 Decagon Gallery, a Brooklyn, New York-based quarterly magazine, under the title "Ordinary Objects." The photograph was titled "The Last Three."

In performance art, Waqas has been involved in street theatre for the past 10 years and conducts performative storytelling under the banner of دیپ ناؤ. He initiated public theatre performances at LUMS in collaboration with the Gurmani Centre of Languages and Literature and organized, directed, and produced short plays performed at a public venue called Khokha Natak.

Waqas often writes opinion pieces and book reviews for various magazines. He also occasionally writes poetry in Punjabi, Urdu, and English, which has been published in both national and international magazines. An advocate of education through the arts, his work focuses on themes of cultural substance, identity, decolonization, social documentary, and environmental evolution.