Born in New York City, Edward Grazda studied photography at the Rhode Island School of Design and has shot extensively throughout Latin America and Asia. Grazda's photographs are in the collections of The Museum of Modern Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and The New York Public Library, all in New York City, as well as The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington D.C., and The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. He has been awarded grants by the National Endowment for the Arts in 1980 and 1986 and is the author of Afghanistan Diary: 1992-2000 (PowerHouse Books, 2000) and Afghanistan: 1980-1989 (Der Alltag, 1990).

Grazda's documentary project New York Masjid: The Mosques of New York City, accompanied by a book of the same title, presents new portraits of, and perspectives on, the Muslim community in New York. Through an exploration of the various spaces Muslims assemble to worship across the boroughs, Grazda's work reveals an alternative vision of Islam in America.