A project of the Institute for Foreign Cultural Relations (ifa, Germany) in cooperation with Universes in Universe
Chobi Mela VII
International Festival of Photography, Bangladesh, 2013
February 2013Since its inception in 2000, Chobi Mela International Festival of Photography 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. Continue reading “Chobi Mela VII on Nafas”
Tag: Festival
4 Weeks -?4 Wochen -?4 Semaines -?4 Semanas -?4 Settimane -?4 Weken
Just a quick line to remind you that the closing date for the 2013 Bristol International Salon of Photography is only 4 weeks away (23 March) and that you can enter by clicking the following link where you can download a copy of the conditions & rules of entry and enter the Salon on line – please click here??Early Bird? Entry. If we receive your entry before 2 March 2013, your entry fee will be reduced by 10% (approximately).
If you require any further details or have any queries, please email me, Pete Howell, at salon@bristolphoto.org.uk
We look forward to seeing your entry soon
Best regards
Pete Howell
Salon Chairman
Good bye! See You in 2015!
Photo by Drik/Majority World
Chobi Mela VII came to an end when the doors closed on the exhibitions at the various galleries around Dhaka.
Chobi Mela VII came to an end when the doors closed on the exhibitions at the various galleries around Dhaka.
We would wish to thank all the exhibiting artists, event participants, workshop conductors, sponsors and everyone else who helped make this festival a success.
Sparks of Chobi Mela VII will linger on over the next couple of weeks ? with certain workshops only having begun and the touring exhibitions still to be dispatched ? but hopefully the Chobi Mela fire and passion for photography will sustain us until the next edition of the festival in 2015.
Over the past weeks we?ve come to understand that fragility need not be a weakness but can be a source of strength and that there is kindness not only in listening to other people?s opinions but great hope in empowering their stories. Now we just need to build on that.
Barbara AKA Shift
Photo by Drik/Majority World
With the end of the festival my time in Bangladesh is slowly running its course? So, good bye for now and see you back in Dhaka for Chobi Mela VIII.
Let?s see if we can get 2 Rolls Royce for the opening rally in 2015.
Visit the Chobi Mela Blog
In a visual age, visionaries
Nii Obodai Photo by Chris Riley
by Chris Riley
From portraits of the men and women who made Bangladesh, to a poem to The Buriganga. From an intimate examination of the bond between two sisters and a rare skin disorder to the documentation of Chinese pollution. From Mexican magical realism to Iranian reality and the brutality of war. From students to mentors and beyond. The picture editors from Time, Geo andThe Guardian meet the Majority World as it finds both voice and vision. In among the teeming Dhaka Chobi Mela?s white background posters seem to be beacons of a new world: less depressed, less angry and newly empowered to write not only Bangladesh?s future but our own.
Ruth Eichhorn from GEO magazines
Photo by Chris Riley
Last time I was here I loved the student show and this year was no different. Tutored, mentored and cajoled by Morten Krogvold a group of 25 students documented Dhaka?s human side and created a show in four days, including the shoots and the printed catalogue. Rather than descend into the depression of all of Dhaka?s problems the students plundered its substructures to elevate the fine and the fun. Idiosyncratic, profound and often simply cool, the show was a triumph of story-telling with a twist: stories told by young men and women about the goodness of the human spirit and its capacity to prevail. This work was not full of parental anger, it was full of a child?s delight. I loved it.
Chobi Mela VII: Opportunity Knocks
Photo by Adnan Wahid/Drik/Majoity World
The 3rd February ?saw the opening ceremony of the last exhibition at Chobi Meal VII. The festival intends to bring together veteran and budding photographers ? and what better way to do so than to hold workshops. During?Morten Krogvold?s workshop?titled??Opportunity Knocks?, the Norwegian photographer sent out the participants to find new ways of looking at their surroundings and the city of Dhaka.
Morten Krogvold at the opening ceremony Photo by Adnan Wahid/Drik/Majority World
Norwegian Ambassador Ragne Birte Lund during the opening ceremony Photo by Adnan Wahid/Drik/Majority World
The exhibition ?Students Work? will be on view at the?Asiatic Gallery of Fine Arts?(5, Old Secretariat Road) until 9 February.
Chobi Mela VII first week round-up
Photo by Drik
The first week of Chobi Mela is coming to an end. Here are some snaps from the events of the past couple of days. Continue reading “Chobi Mela VII first week round-up”
The first week of Chobi Mela is coming to an end. Here are some snaps from the events of the past couple of days. Continue reading “Chobi Mela VII first week round-up”
CALL FOR 2015 GUEST CURATOR PROPOSALS
Le Mois de la Photo ? Montr?al is seeking the guest curator and theme for the 14th edition of its international biennale of contemporary photography that will take place in September 2015. The organization is soliciting brief, preliminary proposals (one page) from which a short list of candidates will be asked to submit more detailed dossiers.
Every two years since 1989, Le Mois de la Photo ? Montr?al produces an innovative photography event that serves as a catalyst for artists, other specialists of the image and the general public.
This event promotes different tendencies in contemporary photography and creates international exchanges between photographers, the public at large, curators, the media and collectors. Le Mois de la Photo ? Montr?al works with museums, galleries, artist-run centres, universities, and numerous other partners to present a stimulating event that, by virtue of a series of mostly solo exhibitions spread across the city, transforms Montr?al into one immense coherent group exhibition organized around a single unifying concept or theme.
Le Mois de la Photo ? Montr?al invited a guest curator to elaborate a new theme for each presentation of the biennale. All the exhibitions, educational activities, the conferences and the publication are all organized around this singular theme. For information regarding the curators and themes of previous events, please consult our Web.
If you wish to submit a project, please download our complete submission guidelines here (PDF format).
Chobi Mela VII: Dhaka revisited
by Pablo Bartholomew
More photos at Le Journal De La Photographie
Pablo Bartholomew ? Shahidul Alam/Drik/Majority World
What is about Chobi Mela that makes it special and important?
So what makes me come back to Chobi Mela, this pioneering festival for photography in Asia? It is the question that I ask myself, now that I am here in Dhaka setting up both my father?s and my exhibitions. Obviously it is the opportunity to show the works and be part of discussions that may provide and lead up to good dialogues and debates. But the fact that the last time I was here was such an important reference point is something that I would like to share. Continue reading “Chobi Mela VII: Dhaka revisited”
So what makes me come back to Chobi Mela, this pioneering festival for photography in Asia? It is the question that I ask myself, now that I am here in Dhaka setting up both my father?s and my exhibitions. Obviously it is the opportunity to show the works and be part of discussions that may provide and lead up to good dialogues and debates. But the fact that the last time I was here was such an important reference point is something that I would like to share. Continue reading “Chobi Mela VII: Dhaka revisited”
Chobi Mela VII: Buy chips
More photos at Le Journal De La Photographie
? Shahidul Alam/Drik/Majority World
The sign on the whiteboard said ?Buy chips?. I couldn?t quite work out why this was so significant in the task list for the festival. Our Slovenian volunteer Barbara explained. With everyone working long hours and Emad at the secretariat being in trouble with his wife. The secretariat had worked out a ploy. Emad?s wife loved chips, so they made sure Emad went home every night with a generous helping. A broken marriage was a distraction we couldn?t afford. Certainly not until the festival was over!
The next door neighbours of Drik have been complaining. With the team working 24 hours, carpenters banging away past midnight hasn?t made us popular. In between the Croatian volunteer Sini?a and the Chinese photographer Hai Zhang arriving, Arfun came in with a coffin. It was to go with Eugene Richard?s show, War is Personal. The powerful, but sensitive work needed to be contextualized for a local audience and the coffin was to be part of the exhibit. Arfun couldn?t resist playing corpse.
The volunteers have been streaming in all day. Young, energetic and somewhat awed. Graciela Iturbide, fine tuning her test prints, Pablo Bartholomew checking the texture on his frames. The energetic Zhang Hai improvising on the fly as pre-planned layouts turn out to be impractical. Rupert Grey?s 1936 Rolls Royce is making its way to Dhaka all the way from Petersfield in the UK, just in time to join the rally. Photographers are set to take over the streets of Dhaka.
The rickshaw vans are ready for their mobile tour. The theme music has been composed. The musicians have set up their sound systems. A lazy media is just waking up to the incredible event that is unfolding before their eyes, and the pressure mounts for places in the boat for the all night party. Let the party begin. Chobi Mela VII is on.
Chobi Mela – International Festival of Photography
January 25 to February 7, 2013
House 58, Road 15A (New),
Dhanmondi, Dhaka 1209
Bangladesh
The next door neighbours of Drik have been complaining. With the team working 24 hours, carpenters banging away past midnight hasn?t made us popular. In between the Croatian volunteer Sini?a and the Chinese photographer Hai Zhang arriving, Arfun came in with a coffin. It was to go with Eugene Richard?s show, War is Personal. The powerful, but sensitive work needed to be contextualized for a local audience and the coffin was to be part of the exhibit. Arfun couldn?t resist playing corpse.
The volunteers have been streaming in all day. Young, energetic and somewhat awed. Graciela Iturbide, fine tuning her test prints, Pablo Bartholomew checking the texture on his frames. The energetic Zhang Hai improvising on the fly as pre-planned layouts turn out to be impractical. Rupert Grey?s 1936 Rolls Royce is making its way to Dhaka all the way from Petersfield in the UK, just in time to join the rally. Photographers are set to take over the streets of Dhaka.
The rickshaw vans are ready for their mobile tour. The theme music has been composed. The musicians have set up their sound systems. A lazy media is just waking up to the incredible event that is unfolding before their eyes, and the pressure mounts for places in the boat for the all night party. Let the party begin. Chobi Mela VII is on.
Chobi Mela – International Festival of Photography
January 25 to February 7, 2013
House 58, Road 15A (New),
Dhanmondi, Dhaka 1209
Bangladesh
Chobi Mela VII: A sampler
? Shahidul Alam
Chobi Mela, the first festival of photography in Asia, is one of the most exciting ventures that Drik has initiated. The first Chobi Mela ? International Festival of Photography was held Dec.1999-January 2000. It is the most demographically inclusive photo festival in the world and is held every two years in Dhaka. The festival examines the dramatic shifts in image production, ownership and distribution brought on by new developments in the media landscape.
Chobi Mela – International Festival of Photography
January 25 to February 7, 2013
House 58, Road 15A (New),
Dhanmondi, Dhaka 1209
Bangladesh
Tel: +880-2-8123412, 8112954
Fax: +880-2-9115044
Email: chobimela@drik.net
Chobi Mela – International Festival of Photography
January 25 to February 7, 2013
House 58, Road 15A (New),
Dhanmondi, Dhaka 1209
Bangladesh
Tel: +880-2-8123412, 8112954
Fax: +880-2-9115044
Email: chobimela@drik.net
Video by DrikAV
Music by Kishon Khan and Lokkhi Terra