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.
Category: Chobi Mela VII
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”
Chobi Mela VII: Dhaka revisited
by Pablo Bartholomew
More photos at Le Journal De La Photographie
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
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
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
Munem Wasif interviews Shahidul Alam on Chobi Mela VII
Complete article with more photographs at Le Journal De La Photographie
Chobi Mela VII Preparation ? Ranak Martin
Festival Director Shahidul Alam talks about the challenges and expectations one faces when running a festival such as Chobi Mela and points out the festival?s uniqueness and beauty.
There?s only few days left before the beginning of Chobi Mela VII and there are still a thousand things to be done and we are awaiting many guests from all over the world. So tell me, how is this Chobi Mela different from previous editions of the festival? What is special this time round?
S. Alam : ?Firstly, it?s actually an extension of previous ones, What we?ve always done in Chobi Mela is to ensure that it?s a very inclusive festival, there are people from all the continents, there is a very diverse range of work in terms of photographic practices, but also in terms of the ideas behind it. Of course we have some artists who are here for very first time, I mean Graciela Iturbide will be here for the first time, Max Pam will be here for the first time, we are not sure yet if Eugene Richards is able to make it, they have very tight schedules but their work is already here. So yes! Very exciting work. Continue reading “Munem Wasif interviews Shahidul Alam on Chobi Mela VII”
Chobi Mela VII: A festival to savour
FESTIVAL
Dhaka 2013:?Chobi Mela VII
Morning mist in Mohakhali during the recent cold spell in Dhaka ? Shahidul Alam/Drik/Majority World
The shutter speed of 125th of a second reserved for momentous slices of time, never slows down enough to listen to the sighs of the silent. Photography therefore is a selective witness. The history it records, a filtered history. It is a filtration different from the dominant narrative of the victor that history has been guilty of. This is more insidious, as it seeps into the very core of our consciousness. I smile for my grandma?s camera. The photojournalist waits for my tear to drop. The moments in between go unrecorded. A staccato history of grand gestures and seminal moments fails to record the nuanced lives we all live.
The medium has been digital all along. The black and whites of photography have largely failed to register the grey ambiguities of the human panorama, the binary perceptions that shape photographic vision failing to respond to subtlety. The everydayness of our lives with its tapestry of emotions, too plain to register amongst the dramatic peaks and troughs that photography has been measured by.
It is only through fissure that?fragility?has registered. It is only on being trampled that the delicate has been lamented. The staunch pillars of photography have rarely let light through the cracks. The frailty of a lost thought, the uncertainty of the first touch, are the insignificants that a camera passes by. The fragility of a tortured earth, the slow death of a glacier, the disappearance of the honeybee, too slow a change to register in 125th of a second.
In a gendered world fragility is not macho enough. In a misogynist industry, to pause is to be effeminate. Where sex and violence are the opiates we are fed on, quieter moments do not even make the ?B roll?. A sob too insignificant, to register on a megapixel sensor.
We look for those fleeting moments. A gossamer of gentle thoughts billowing in turbulent winds. An unraveling strand of humanity bending against the onslaught of invasive culture. The frail existence of a marginal farmer eking out a living in the shadows of engineered genes. Communities holding out against the rising tide of modernity. Lost languages, vanishing cultures, disappearing forests, all entwined by a vulnerability, familiar to those who resist market forces.
In an economy gasping for breath, in an ecosystem reeling under consumption, waste and the ravages of war, the greed of a few threaten the future of many. We challenge you to push back the tide of unbridled growth and lay your stake to a sustainable universe. It is only by embracing the fragility of this world that we will make it your own.
Shahidul Alam, Festival Director
Chobi Mela – International Festival of Photography
January 25 to February 7, 2013
House 58, Road 15A (New),
Dhanmondi, Dhaka 1209
Bangladesh
Chobi Mela website
More photos at?Le Journal De La Photographie
Buy Chips: Chobi Mela VII in "La lettre de la photographie"
By Shahidul Alam. Dhaka 2013
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 Rolls rolls in
We show a short clip of the history of Chobi Mela in the eve of Chobi Mela VII. Appropriately linking the present to the past is a 1936 Rolls Royce which has made it’s way from the UK to participate in the festival rally.
Chobi Mela VII a preview from Shahidul Alam on Vimeo.
Chobi Mela VII beckons
The 7th edition of the Chobi Mela festival is less than 48 hours away.?This time on Friday photographers and visitors from all corners of the?world will gather at Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy* to officially launch?the two-week long festival in Dhaka.
The event calendar for the next two weeks is packed with exciting artist’s?talks, thought-provoking discussions, intriguing presentations and much?more. And that’s not including the 35 exhibitions that will be on view?from 25th January to 7th February.
So pencil in all those dates after skimming over our events schedule.
We hope we will catch a glimpse of you at one of these events and?cordially invite you to join us over the next two weeks!
*with their hearts already set on the infamous boat cruise. š
For more details:
Website:?http://www.chobimela.
Blog:?blog.chobimela.org/
Facebook:?www.facebook.com/
Twitter:?twitter.com/chobimela
Live streaming of Key events:?http://www.drik.tv/,?h