Written with lights

An autistic child playing “doctor” to her mother. Photo: Rehnuma Tasnim Sheefa

My father has been very passionate about photography, he used to keep a small sketchbook to draw frames of his thoughts. He would then look for opportunities as to when or where he could capture such incidents.

I never understood why, but I know now that he used to rewrite his thoughts with the light that is visible, without any barriers of words and language.

I started practising the same. I was in Grade 6 when I started exploring photography with a fixed-focus Yashika film camera gifted by my father. Nothing much has changed since then, in almost 16 years. Taking photographs has become instinctual for me.

I have participated in and been invited to many national and international exhibitions. I earned a gold medal from Sri Lanka and the Royal Commonwealth Society Photography Award for Youth in 2011.

The photograph that bagged the RCS award is very close to my heart. It is a picture of an autistic child playing "doctor" to her mother. I visited her house while doing a school project and captured this significant moment of affection.

I have always been subconsciously very observant about people, streets, events, and life. Growing up in the heart of Old Dhaka, my eyes and mind have always been curious about small events happening in my surroundings, in much detail.

My favourite spot in my home is the window from which I have seen the change of an ancestral urbanscape. I have taken many photographs from this window throughout the years, keeping a document of the changes.

One such story from our window was captured one fine monsoon morning. When I got my first digital camera in 2009, I used to be restless experimenting and capturing moments. It was around 5:30 in the morning and it was raining cats and dogs. I was up to get ready for school. But my eyes were just transfixed at the window. The blue sky and reflection of the colour on the wet road were mesmerising. I was standing in a position all framed as I wanted, waiting for one decisive moment to find a person with an umbrella. Voila! As soon as I got my subject on the perfect composition for the photograph, I captured it.

Photo: Rehnuma Tasnim Sheefa

Now that photograph is printed, framed, and hung on the walls of many of my closest people, who seem to have a significant connection to this view and street.

I write too, with words, which is maybe the easiest form of expressing as per the world. But my comfort language is light. I like writing with light. Wallowing my thoughts in situations of surroundings, capturing in ways my eyes see. It shapes and evolves my mind at a very productive pace. No single eye sees a thing similar, and that's the most empowering fact of photography.

I mostly like capturing decisive events from my surroundings, like human expression and interaction with space and surroundings.

Photo: Rehnuma Tasnim Sheefa

Reflections on transparent objects have been one of my most favourite personal projects that I captured over a long time. But my passion project is the documentation of the change of my ancestral urbanscape, which will never be the same. Someday, I look forward to doing an exhibition of the collection on our rooftop, where people will experience the present view in parallel to its past.

Being a professional architect, the skill of observation in photography has helped me in many ways. Now when I think while designing a space, my imagination of the future-built environment is the sum of thoughts like how light will interact and how humans will encounter that space. The whole experience is a psychological journey.

Photo: Rehnuma Tasnim Sheefa

Photography is a universal language. You don't need to speak or understand French to read a photograph captured by a French photographer.

And with the advancement of technology and having smartphones in every hand, this is one of the easiest and availing art tools that I can urge someone to explore.

Rehnuma Tasnim Sheefa is an architect and a visual storyteller