Musings by Shahidul Alam
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”
Pablo Bartholomew (India) in conversation with Munem Wasif and Shahidul Alam Continue reading “Chobi Mela talks”
Most people today do not live in Europe or North America, or have white skin. Yet the world’s economy and media are dominated by a handful of Western countries, and the reporting on developing nations is not always done by people who know their subjects well. Continue reading “Wresting the Narrative From the West”
The Gwangju Biennale Foundation is pleased to invite you to the launch of the book?Shifting Gravity on the 30th of May at Hotel Monaco & Grand Canal in Venice, Italy. This?book, published by the Gwangju Biennale Foundation and Hatje Cantz, presents the issues,?discourses, and practices that have been evolving over the past 20 years with the?development of biennials around the globe.
The catalyst for this publication was the World Biennial Forum No.1, an international forum?held in Gwangju, South Korea in October 2012. The forum and publication were organized?through the collaboration of the Gwangju Biennale Foundation, the Biennial Foundation,?and the ifa (Institut f?r Auslandsbeziehungen). During the five-day forum, directors and?representatives of biennials and a number of professionals discussed a wide range of?issues regarding biennials and their meaning as a global cultural phenomenon.
Shifting Gravity is composed of three main essays on the theme of biennials and thirty-nine?essays on different biennials held around the globe. Ute Meta Bauer and Hou Hanru, the?directors of the forum, took on the role of editors for the publication of the book.
Chobi Mela is one of the biennales featured.
For RSVP please contact:?Serene Pac
After two days of deliberation around?750 applications from 63 countries, a jury of international professionals composed of??Florian Ebner, curator at Folkwang Museum in Essen (Germany),?Yasmine Eid-Sabbagh & Rozenn Qu?r?, winners of the Vevey international photography award 2011/2012,?Erik Kessels, curator and editor at KesselsKramer in Amsterdam (The Netherlands),?Kathy Ryan, photo editor at New York Times Magazine (USA) and presided by French photographer?Bettina Rheimsdecided to award the young Swiss photographer?Augustin Rebetez.?
Continue reading “The Vevey international photography 2013/2014 goes to Augustin Rebetez (1986, CH)”
Want to take a sneak preview of the contents of Positive Light? This preview shows the introduction plus the first five spreads of each section of the book. The original contest was broken down into Culture, History, Place and People.
DO NOT BUY THE BLURB COPY from the link above! We are only using Blurb for preview purposes.
Pledge to buy a copy (or copies!) of Positive Light
Don’t forget, up until 31 March 2013 you can pledge to purchase Positive Light at our pre-sales crowdfunding campaign at this link. Every little bit helps — and more importantly this campaign will help Drik continue its work in social justice in Bangladesh.
VOICE OF BANGLADESHI IDENTITY
Ina Puri | March 9, 2013 The Times of India
A prominent voice of Bangladeshi identity, Shahidul Alam has garnered acclaim for documenting his nation?s many struggles. As an activist and photographer, he has distinguished himself in international art gatherings, winning accolades for his work that has sought to narrate the story of pain and hopelessness, of the need to fight for justice. He has also founded Majority World, a photo agency that looks to promote talent in Third World nations. TOI-Crest catches up with Alam at the Kochi Biennale. Continue reading “The war of '71 never ended”
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”
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
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.