A vertical perspective on urban Dhaka
Sujan has showcased the busiest parts of Dhaka and has made the urbanites the subjects of his images
Bashir Ahmed Sujan, a photographer both by profession and passion, feels that even the imperfect and peculiar things in our country have aesthetics and a story behind them.
This is the theme he wanted to display in his panoramic photography exhibition- 'Stand Up, Dhaka', organised by Duniyadari Archive, which comes to an end today at the Alliance Francaise de Dhaka. The curators are Amirul Rajiv and Naim Ul Hasan.
Sujan tells stories through visuals. He works with films. All the photographs in his exhibition were processed by himself using chemicals and film he imported from abroad.
The theme of this exhibition collaborated with the title- 'Stand Up, Dhaka'. You will find that all the photographs clicked in Panoramic format and are stood vertically.
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Pertaining to the name of the exhibition Sujan explains, "Well, the name's idea came from Amirul Rajiv. I used to walk around Dhaka. I would look at everything, especially people and structures both tall and small. One of my favourite formats is the panoramic format, I would click pictures in that way."
"I have clicked pictures of Dhaka both horizontally and vertically. Whenever I would visit various areas, like Old Dhaka, New Dhaka, market places, or even the Buriganga river, or places where we have the hard-working class, and the labourers, I would feel like the places are growing and booming in a very different manner. My wish was to capture not just them, but their environment too. This time however my wish was to capture it all vertically. You will find pictures here that have been clicked from 2006, to even 2019," he added.
The exhibition was spartan with one glaring caveat- the absence of too many gleaming or even sufficient lights like we generally see in similar exhibits. He explained, "You will notice the gallery does not have very crude lights. We set up the spotlights, particularly facing the photographs."
Sujan has showcased the busiest parts of Dhaka and has made the urbanites the subjects of his images. As he explained why he took certain photos, most of his explanations were about how spontaneous the images were.
Sujan started his journey with photography in 1991 with his father's camera. He was a student back then. Later, through his cousin, he grew more eager for photography, although he understood very little of it. He grew fond of it and kept at it as a hobby. But the hobby was masquerading as passion from a very young age, he wanted to work with analogue film and not the digital methods.
This is Sujan's first solo exhibition and second solo publication. We asked him how come it was his first solo exhibition after all spending such a long time with his craft, he replied, "Well, it's the lack of confidence. I never understood or thought of my work as something exceptional. As I said, I didn't really decide on a theme before I clicked all these photos. Similarly, I merely kept clicking out of my love for photography."
"Now after this, I am astonished to have received such positive feedback. The representatives here at Alliance Francaise said they have worked here for years and have never seen so many visitors for an exhibition up until now," he added.
Sujan is also a member of Map Photo Agency. This is one of the leading photography agencies in Bangladesh. Through his association with the organisation, he learned more, became involved in social work, and soon broke into the professional strata of photography.
"If films were not so expensive, I would have tried anything to make them more available for the young photographers in Dhaka. I want to continue working in this format too. I love it. I have seen many works of photographers abroad. However, most people take pictures of landscapes. I however prefer photographing people because I have a genuine curiosity about them. So they have been my main subjects in these photographs."
TBS PICKS
A selection of photographs from the exhibition with a description from the artist
1. This house is made of bamboo. This is a four-storied building, but each floor probably has at least eight rooms. It makes us wonder how their lives are in these houses.
2. Through this, I wanted to show what living is like for the people of Old Dhaka. Their regular life and synchronisation with each other are fascinating.
3. I saw this man sitting with his head down. It made me wonder what he might be thinking or might be frustrated about. It could have been anything related to his life, his struggles. I wanted to capture this for the curiosity it inspired within me at that time.
