Tag: culture

Call for themes: Chobi Mela VIII

Theme for
Chobi Mela VIII

Win a festival catalogue!
Deadline: 28 February 2014

Propose your theme for Chobi Mela VIII, January 2015

Chobi Mela, the international festival of photography since its inception in 2000 has aimed at exploring the semiotics of present day photographic practice in a broad international context, to bring about an understanding of the medium both within the industry and amongst the public at large. The past festivals, thematically addressed?Differences, Exclusion, Resistance, Boundaries,?Freedom, Dreams and Fragility?provided an opportunity to fine art photographers, conceptual artists and photo journalists, to explore possibilities, in its myriad forms.
Chobi Mela invites you to propose a theme for its upcoming eighth edition. Proposals will then be debated online and followed by a poll. The most voted theme will be chosen for the next festival and will win an exciting copy of the Chobi Mela VIII catalogue.
Deadline: 28 February 2014
Drop your theme and be a part of world?s most inclusive festival!

http://chobimela.org/chobimela-viii/
Best regards,
Chobi Mela Secretariat
Dhaka, Bangladesh
E-mail:?chobimela@drik.net

DAVID HOCKNEY?S CUBIST PHOTOGRAPHY

Source: Dangerous Minds

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It was during a discussion for a planned exhibition of his personal photographs that artist David Hockney hit upon a new way of making pictures.?Alain Sayag, of the Pompidou Center in Paris, had visited Hockney at his LA home, and was looking through the 100-odd photo albums, when Hockney realized the photographs had ?cheated,? as they had not captured a true sense of the events they depicted.

?I had become very, very aware of this frozen moment that was very unreal to me. The photographs didn?t really have life in the way a drawing or painting did, and I realized it couldn?t because of what it is. Continue reading “DAVID HOCKNEY?S CUBIST PHOTOGRAPHY”

If you want to learn code, pick up a paintbrush

In the history of the Nobel Prize, nearly every Laureate has pursued the arts. According to research by psychologists Michele and Robert Root-Bernstein, ?almost all Nobel laureates in the sciences actively engage in arts as adults. They are twenty-five times as likely as the average scientist to sing, dance, or act; seventeen times as likely to be a visual artist; twelve times more likely to write poetry and literature; eight times more likely to do woodworking or some other craft; four times as likely to be a musician; and twice as likely to be a photographer.?
Perhaps?you don?t need to learn to code.
For a testament to the Nobel observation, see?Richard Feynman?s sketches and drawings. We also know that Einstein worked out some of his most difficult physics problems?while playing violin.

Old Dhaka by Munem Wasif

Belonging: A book by Munem Wasif

Preface by Christian Caujolle

Belonging
It only takes a single glance to recognize a classic. The confirmation can be seen here, in this direct, forthright photography ? the same quality that came through in the series devoted to ?Salty Tears?, in which Munem Wasif examined, documented and questioned the situation regarding water in his country, Bangladesh. Classic by choice, starting with the choice of black and white, whose relative distancing from reality demands exacting precision in the composition. Arising, as always in photography, from a succession of rejections, eliminations and decisions, this choice precludes the picturesque quality that too often prevails when lands and peoples are viewed through the prism of exoticism. But black and white, while it places the photographer within a documentary tradition long associated with journalism, obliges him to go beyond merely transposing a visual record of the world. He must take a position, and he does, deliberately and consistently.

Open salon at the riverbank, Buriganga, 2005.
Open salon at the riverbank, Buriganga, 2005.

Continue reading “Old Dhaka by Munem Wasif”

2D Or Not 2D

My research for the curatorial presentation at the Angkor Wat festival led me to many interesting bodies of work. I had help from several areas. The photographers themselves, particularly Pedro Meyer, Frad Baldwin and Wendy Watriss of Fotofest, were many amongst them. Francoise Callier??helped by giving me unfettered freedom in choice and format. It was hard work, but I was enjoying it. As always, there was work I couldn’t include into a 90 minute presentation. I decided to continue the work. Here is some of the work that didn’t make it to the show. Not because the work wasn’t good enough, but because it didn’t quite fit. Enjoy:

Models? Faces Turned Into Stunning Optical Illusions By Creative Russian Duo

Moscow-based photographer Alexander Khokhlov and makeup artist Valeriya Kutsan have created a bewitching series of portraits that play with the natural lines of their models? faces and twist them into strange new forms.

 
Their newest series of stunning colored portraits,?2D Or Not 2D, is only the latest collaboration between the two artists. Khokhlov and Kutsan have also created portrait series with powerful black-and-white designs and a series parodying the popular Angry Birds game. The designs are amazing ? some of them soften or break down the face?s lines, while others reinforce them or create unnaturally perfect patterns. Continue reading “2D Or Not 2D”

The Trial of Tony Blair

Channel 4. 2007

A very well made film. Fiction, but too close to the truth to be comfortable. I can’t believe this film hasn’t gone viral. Are people even scared of watching a spoof? C’mon folks. Share this widely.?

Reflections on Chobi Mela VII

?By Alakananda Nag

Rupert Grey on the rooftop of his 1936 Rolls Royce which he drove across to Bangladesh for Chobi Mela VII
Rupert Grey on the rooftop of his 1936 Rolls Royce which he drove across to Bangladesh for Chobi Mela VII

Chobi Mela, a biennale photography festival held in Dhaka, Bangladesh just completed its 7th edition in January 2013. Chobi Mela (literally, photo fair), started in 1999, is Asia?s largest photo festival. This year the theme was Fragility. Continue reading “Reflections on Chobi Mela VII”

The Poetics of Space

Rosa Maria Falvo on the architecture of Rafiq Azam

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Travelling through Bangladesh, you soon become aware of the fluidity of nature, its ultimate omnipotence and perfection, and the comparatively contorted predicaments of human aggregation. Continue reading “The Poetics of Space”

Architecture for Green Living

Fifth book in the series on Bangladeshi Fine Art

Rafiq Azam

Earlier books have been by Shahidul Alam, Kazi Ghiyasuddin, Safiuddin?Ahmed and Zainul Abedin.

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With a foreword by Kerry Hill. Texts by Kazi Khaled Ashraf, Philip Goad, Rosa Maria Falvo, and Syed Manzoorul Islam Continue reading “Architecture for Green Living”