All Roads Photography Program

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Chobi Mela Featured in National Geographic website:

Photograph by Tom?s Munita

The All Roads Photography Program will be exhibiting its 2010 photography awardees at?Chobi Mela VI, an international festival of photography. Chobi Mela VI opens January 21, 2011 in Bangladesh. This year?s theme is ?Dreams? and is considered the largest exhibition of photography in Asia. The festival is considered to have the most diverse participation of photography in the world. Now having gained an international reputation as one of the leading photography festivals in the world it features 63 exhibitions from 33 participating countries that span all seven continents of the globe. Chobi Mela is unique in having been developed and launched in South Asia.
Shahidul Alam, Chobi Mela festival director and All Roads photography advisory board member, explains the festival?s theme, ?As dream merchants, we [photographers] create images that confront us with horrific facts, and allure us with magical metaphors. We seek a society where love songs are cherished and curiosity celebrated. We conjure up a mystical world, through light and shape and dancing pixels. We toy with perceptions and juggle facts. We trade in the currency of dreams, and flirt with an elusive reality. So to turn to dreams after [past themes] ?Differences?, ?Exclusion?, ?Resistance?, ?Boundaries? and ?Freedom? is perhaps to return to what holds us together in the face of all our obstacles, the foci of all our longings. To realize our dreams is perhaps the ultimate paradise. So we invite dreamers and wanderers and the soulful troubadour, to ignite our imagination. To provoke and goad us out . . . to dream.?
The 2010 Photography Program Awardees Are:
Rashid Talukder (Bangladesh)
Pioneer Photographer Award
Photo essay ?The 1971 Liberation War?
Tom?s Munita (Chile)
Mid-career Photographer Award
Photo essay ?Lost Harvest?The Death of Loa River?
Sumit Dayal (Kashmir)
Emerging Photographer Award
Photo essay ?On Going Home?
View the 2010 All Roads Photography Gallery Here
The Photography Program recognizes and supports talented international storytellers whose still photography documents their changing cultures and communities. Each year four photographers are awarded a financial prize, and their photo essays are exhibited at the All Roads Film Festival and other venues. They also receive photographic accessories and, through workshops, get valuable training to assist in their fieldwork.
Candidates are nominated by an advisory board of leaders from the photography industry and representatives from National Geographic Society.
Selection Criteria

  • Award recipients must be from an indigenous or minority culture within their countries of origin.
  • Award recipients? work must document their changing cultures and community and represent a recent body of work (within the last two years).
  • Potential recipients must be living in the countries that they are documenting.
  • Awards are based on artistic merit in combination with the photojournalistic focus of the project.

Author: Shahidul Alam

Time Magazine Person of the Year 2018. A photographer, writer, curator and activist, Shahidul Alam obtained a PhD in chemistry before switching to photography. His seminal work “The Struggle for Democracy” contributed to the removal of General Ershad. Former president of the Bangladesh Photographic Society, Alam set up the Drik agency, Chobi Mela festival and Pathshala, South Asian Media Institute, considered one of the finest schools of photography in the world. Shown in MOMA New York, Centre Georges Pompidou, Royal Albert Hall and Tate Modern, Alam has been guest curator of Whitechapel Gallery, Winterthur Gallery and Musee de Quai Branly. His awards include Mother Jones, Shilpakala Award and Lifetime Achievement Award at the Dali International Festival of Photography. Speaker at Harvard, Stanford, UCLA, Oxford and Cambridge universities, TEDx, POPTech and National Geographic, Alam chaired the international jury of the prestigious World Press Photo contest. Honorary Fellow of Royal Photographic Society, Alam is visiting professor of Sunderland University in UK and advisory board member of National Geographic Society. John Morris, the former picture editor of Life Magazine describes his book “My journey as a witness”, (listed in “Best Photo Books of 2011” by American Photo), as “The most important book ever written by a photographer.”

One thought on “All Roads Photography Program”

  1. The exhibition will move to Bahrain Yemen Saudi Arabia UAE and Qatar in February 2010..The exhibition includes large-scale photography audio-visual presentations and film to look at how the built environment reflects the people the community society and Middle East nations. .You are cordially invited to attend the inauguration ceremony of the second phase of Chobi Mela V the International Festival of Photography in Bangladesh at Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy on Wednesday the 11th of February 2009 at 4 00 pm..The guest of honour for the ceremony will be Sultana Kamal former advisor to the caretaker government and executive director of Ain o Salish Kendra..Kieron Crawley the country director of Concern Worldwide Bangladesh will be present as a special guest..In the second phase 23 print exhibitions will be on display in Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy Chobir Haat Drik Gallery and Goethe Institut from 11th to 20th February 2009.. I have nothing but admiration as you know for you re continuing to stand by the political and critical uses of photography.

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