(Clockwise:
from top-left) “India Song”/Karen Knorr; “National Geographic All
Roads”/ Rashid Talukder; “Dreams”/ David de Souza; “Here Anywhere”/
Tamas Dezso and “Salt Water Tears”/ Munem Wasif.
Biggest Asian photography festival begins today
What of the photograph made out of nothing? What about painting with light? Is it photography? Surely if we can paint with light we can paint with dreams, create the morning mist or the afternoon glow. Is it fake? Hardly. Whatever else may be false in this tenuous existence of ours, imagination is not. All that we value, that we strive to uphold, all that gives us strength, has been made of dreams, and we must dream on. If pixels be the vehicle that realises our dreams, be it so.
-- Pedro Meyer, celebrated Mexican photographer
(Clockwise: from top-left) “India Song”/Karen Knorr; “National Geographic All Roads”/ Rashid Talukder; “Dreams”/ David de Souza; “Here Anywhere”/ Tamas Dezso and “Salt Water Tears”/ Munem Wasif.
Biggest Asian photography festival begins today
What of the photograph made out of nothing? What about painting with light? Is it photography? Surely if we can paint with light we can paint with dreams, create the morning mist or the afternoon glow. Is it fake? Hardly. Whatever else may be false in this tenuous existence of ours, imagination is not. All that we value, that we strive to uphold, all that gives us strength, has been made of dreams, and we must dream on. If pixels be the vehicle that realises our dreams, be it so.
-- Pedro Meyer, celebrated Mexican photographer What of the photograph made out of nothing? What about painting with light? Is it photography? Surely if we can paint with light we can paint with dreams, create the morning mist or the afternoon glow. Is it fake? Hardly. Whatever else may be false in this tenuous existence of ours, imagination is not. All that we value, that we strive to uphold, all that gives us strength, has been made of dreams, and we must dream on. If pixels be the vehicle that realises our dreams, be it so.
-- Pedro Meyer, celebrated Mexican photographer
With
29 print exhibitions featuring over 400 images by photographers from 22
countries; 33 digital presentations; 9 workshops conducted by seasoned
photographers; mobile exhibitions on 10 rickshaw vans and a
videoconference with the Prosecutor of International Criminal Court, Dr.
Luis Moreno-Ocampo, Chobi Mela VI (the biggest festival of photography
in Asia) starts today in Dhaka. The print exhibitions will be
simultaneously held at seven venues -- National Art Gallery, Bangladesh
Shilpakala Academy; Alliance Francaise de Dhaka; Asiatic Gallery of Fine
Arts; British Council; Drik Gallery; Goethe-Institut Dhaka and
Lichutola at Faculty of Fine Arts, Dhaka University -- from today.
Some of the biggest names in international photography, including Pedro Meyer (Mexico), Morten Krogvold (Norway), Robert Plege (UK/France) and Chris Rainier (Canada) will be in the city during the festival. Photographers from 31 countries will attend the festival at different levels.
This instalment of the festival, with its theme 'Dreams', is designed to be a birthplace of ideas, and a crossover meeting point for many photographers. It intends to open a portal to a mystical world of images showcasing new trends in photography and bringing to the fore issues involving our troubled world.
“I dream that Chobi Mela will play a role in re-writing the history of photography, and correcting the extremely Eurocentric version of history that is currently propagated,” said Shahidul Alam, festival director and director of Drik Picture Library.
The festival will be launched today at the National Theatre Hall, Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy. Like previous years, Lifetime Achievement Awards will be conferred at the inaugural programme. This year three personalities from different continents -- Naib Uddin Ahmed (Asia/Bangladesh), J.D. Okhai Ojeikere (Africa/Nigeria) and Pedro Meyer (North America/Mexico) -- will receive the awards.
Among Bangladeshi photographers, Debashish Shom, Munem Wasif and Sayed Asif Mahmud will participate at the festival with their respective stories -- “Dhaka: My Dreams, My Reality”; “Salt Water Tears” and “My City of Unheard Prayers”. Wasif and Shom's exhibition will take place at Drik Gallery, while Mahmud's exhibition will be held at Shilpakala Academy.
Among photographers from other countries, Karen Knorr (Puerto Rico) with her story “India Song”; Morten Krogvold with “Encounters”; Mario Macilau (Mozambique/“The Zionist”); David de Souza (India/“Dreams”); Bronik Kozka (Australia/“Suburbia: The Australian Dream”) and Tamas Dezso (Hungary/“Here Anywhere”) will be featured at the festival. Karen Knorr's “Queen's Room” from the story “India Song” has been selected as this year's logo photograph.
Two group exhibitions -- one by the National Geographic team featuring works of Rashid Talukder (Bangladesh), Sumit Dayal (Kashmir) and Tomas Munita (Chile) and another by participants from the Morten Krogvold workshop -- are also part of the print exhibitions.
In congruence with the exhibitions, there will be two portfolio reviews and weeklong discussions, seminars and lectures at the Goethe-Institut auditorium in Dhaka.
The Moreno-Ocampo videoconference will take place on January 22 evening at the Goethe-Institut auditorium. In this position, his mandate is to select and trigger investigations and prosecutions of the most serious crimes of concern to the international community, namely genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.
Thirty-three digital presentations including two films and a play “Parable of the Lost Post Office/Rabindranath Tagore” are also part of the festival. The digital presentations include 19 photo stories.
Chobi Mela was first held in 2000.
Chobi Mela VI will continue till February 3.
Biggest Asian photography festival begins today
What of the photograph made out of nothing? What about painting with light? Is it photography? Surely if we can paint with light we can paint with dreams, create the morning mist or the afternoon glow. Is it fake? Hardly. Whatever else may be false in this tenuous existence of ours, imagination is not. All that we value, that we strive to uphold, all that gives us strength, has been made of dreams, and we must dream on. If pixels be the vehicle that realises our dreams, be it so.
-- Pedro Meyer, celebrated Mexican photographer
(Clockwise: from top-left) “India Song”/Karen Knorr; “National Geographic All Roads”/ Rashid Talukder; “Dreams”/ David de Souza; “Here Anywhere”/ Tamas Dezso and “Salt Water Tears”/ Munem Wasif.
Biggest Asian photography festival begins today
What of the photograph made out of nothing? What about painting with light? Is it photography? Surely if we can paint with light we can paint with dreams, create the morning mist or the afternoon glow. Is it fake? Hardly. Whatever else may be false in this tenuous existence of ours, imagination is not. All that we value, that we strive to uphold, all that gives us strength, has been made of dreams, and we must dream on. If pixels be the vehicle that realises our dreams, be it so.
-- Pedro Meyer, celebrated Mexican photographer What of the photograph made out of nothing? What about painting with light? Is it photography? Surely if we can paint with light we can paint with dreams, create the morning mist or the afternoon glow. Is it fake? Hardly. Whatever else may be false in this tenuous existence of ours, imagination is not. All that we value, that we strive to uphold, all that gives us strength, has been made of dreams, and we must dream on. If pixels be the vehicle that realises our dreams, be it so.
-- Pedro Meyer, celebrated Mexican photographer
Some of the biggest names in international photography, including Pedro Meyer (Mexico), Morten Krogvold (Norway), Robert Plege (UK/France) and Chris Rainier (Canada) will be in the city during the festival. Photographers from 31 countries will attend the festival at different levels.
This instalment of the festival, with its theme 'Dreams', is designed to be a birthplace of ideas, and a crossover meeting point for many photographers. It intends to open a portal to a mystical world of images showcasing new trends in photography and bringing to the fore issues involving our troubled world.
“I dream that Chobi Mela will play a role in re-writing the history of photography, and correcting the extremely Eurocentric version of history that is currently propagated,” said Shahidul Alam, festival director and director of Drik Picture Library.
The festival will be launched today at the National Theatre Hall, Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy. Like previous years, Lifetime Achievement Awards will be conferred at the inaugural programme. This year three personalities from different continents -- Naib Uddin Ahmed (Asia/Bangladesh), J.D. Okhai Ojeikere (Africa/Nigeria) and Pedro Meyer (North America/Mexico) -- will receive the awards.
Among Bangladeshi photographers, Debashish Shom, Munem Wasif and Sayed Asif Mahmud will participate at the festival with their respective stories -- “Dhaka: My Dreams, My Reality”; “Salt Water Tears” and “My City of Unheard Prayers”. Wasif and Shom's exhibition will take place at Drik Gallery, while Mahmud's exhibition will be held at Shilpakala Academy.
Among photographers from other countries, Karen Knorr (Puerto Rico) with her story “India Song”; Morten Krogvold with “Encounters”; Mario Macilau (Mozambique/“The Zionist”); David de Souza (India/“Dreams”); Bronik Kozka (Australia/“Suburbia: The Australian Dream”) and Tamas Dezso (Hungary/“Here Anywhere”) will be featured at the festival. Karen Knorr's “Queen's Room” from the story “India Song” has been selected as this year's logo photograph.
Two group exhibitions -- one by the National Geographic team featuring works of Rashid Talukder (Bangladesh), Sumit Dayal (Kashmir) and Tomas Munita (Chile) and another by participants from the Morten Krogvold workshop -- are also part of the print exhibitions.
In congruence with the exhibitions, there will be two portfolio reviews and weeklong discussions, seminars and lectures at the Goethe-Institut auditorium in Dhaka.
The Moreno-Ocampo videoconference will take place on January 22 evening at the Goethe-Institut auditorium. In this position, his mandate is to select and trigger investigations and prosecutions of the most serious crimes of concern to the international community, namely genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.
Thirty-three digital presentations including two films and a play “Parable of the Lost Post Office/Rabindranath Tagore” are also part of the festival. The digital presentations include 19 photo stories.
Chobi Mela was first held in 2000.
Chobi Mela VI will continue till February 3.
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