ZEKE Magazine: Spring 2021

ZEKESPRING 2021 VOL.7/NO.1 $12 US 

THE MAGAZINE OF GLOBAL DOCUMENTARY 

FROM BANGLADESH 

ROHINGYA 

Photographs by Turjoy 

Chowdhury, Sarika Gulati, 

Mohammad Rakibul 

Hasan, Richard Juilliart 

CLIMATE CRISIS 

Photographs by 

MD Sazzadul Alam, 

Saud A. Faisal, 

Moniruzzaman Sazal 

COVID 

Photographs by Nazmul Hassan Shanji 

DOMESTIC VIOLENCE 

Photographs by Khaled Hasan and Md. Zobayer Hossain Joati 

FROM UNITED STATES 

SIEGE ON US CAPITOL 

Photographs by Maranie Rae Staab 

Published by Social Documentary Network 

Focus on Bangladesh

SPRING 2021 VOL.7/NO.1 

$12 US 

Focus on Bangladesh 

BANGLADESH 

2 | ROHINGYA 

Photographs by Turjoy Chowdhury, Sarika Gulati, 

Mohammad Rakibul Hasan, Richard Juilliart 

Sarika Gulati 

12 | CLIMATE CRISIS 

Photographs by MD Sazzadul Alam, Saud A. Faisal, 


24 | COVID 

Photographs by Nazmul Hassan Shanji 

Saud A. Faisal 

36 | DOMESTIC VIOLENCE 


UNITED STATES 

Nazmul Hassan Shanji 

Khaled Hasan 

62 | SIEGE ON THE US CAPITOL 

Photographs by Maranie Rae Staab 

48 | Photography in Bangladesh 

by Mohammad Rakibul Hasan and Fabeha Monir 

54 | Interview with Shahidul Alam 

by Michelle Bogre 

56 | Book Reviews 

Maranie Rae Staab 

On the Cover 

Photo by Turjoy Chowdhury. 

18-day-old, born in Balukhali 

Rohingya Refugee Camp, Cox’s 

Bazar, Bangladesh. See inside 

back cover for profile on Turjoy.

ZEKE 

THE 

MAGAZINE OF 

GLOBAL DOCUMENTARY 


Dear ZEKE Readers: 

Being a guest editor for this special edition on Bangladesh and author 

of an article on its photographic history, I am thrilled to represent 

the past histories of the people and culture from five thousand years 

of Harappan civilization in South Asia. Bangladesh finally achieved 

independence in 1971, and since then development of photography 

has been gradually reshaped by the work of a rich history of creative 

and forward-looking practitioners. 

In the context of the global COVID-19 pandemic, the Bangladeshi 

photography community is also struggling as the uncertainty is 

felt in almost every sector including the international art market. 

Nevertheless, the necessity for artistic creation is still a driving force 

— the transcendence of ideas, representation of the physical world, 

psychological and philosophical manifestations — vividly being pursued 

by artists, photographers, and by practitioners in other creative fields. 

In this special edition of ZEKE, the chosen photographs from 

Bangladeshi and non-Bangladeshi photographers cover themes that 

touch on universal issues such as the Rohingya refugee crisis, domestic 

violence, climate change, and the COVID-19 pandemic — all vital 

to Bangladesh but also to the global community. Each story has its 

clarity, style, and point of view; some are classical documentaries 

while others represent a newer conceptual documentary genre. 

Bangladesh is now a middle-income country where the populations 

of major cities have a growing self-awareness that includes not 

only taking selfies but also involves a younger generation of 

photographers that include large numbers of women who are 

practicing photography for the first time. With the availability of 

smartphones, internet accessibility, and social media as primary 

platforms for communications, Bangladesh is becoming connected to 

the mainstream of global visual culture. 

Photography in Bangladesh is a rapidly growing sector of artistic 

practice. There is no other medium that has an equal impact on both 

social life and the commercial arena. Everywhere in the country, the use 

of photography—either for documentation purpose or just pleasure— 

is widely visible. Keeping a visual record is now a social norm. The 

growing number of amateur photographers is increasing every year and 

professional photographers involved in serious photography continue to 

grow, though the majority of photographic practice is still stuck in the midtwentieth 

century. But a determined cohort of young photographers are 

trying to break the boundaries and are moving forward with innovative 

ideas and technologies to create a new vision for photography. 

Mohammad Rakibul Hasan 

Guest Editor 

I am very excited to present this issue of ZEKE 

featuring Bangladesh and a special portfolio on the 

siege of the US Capitol. 

Why Bangladesh? One reason is the extraordinary 

number of talented photographers in this small but 

densely populated country. The second reason is that 

Bangladesh is a microcosm for many of the problems 

facing the rest of the world. The four themes in this 

issue focus on critical issues that could be found 

anywhere today —climate change, refugees, the 

COVID-19 pandemic, and domestic violence. 

When the SDN website was founded in 2008, 

some of the first photographers to post work were 

from Bangladesh, including Sheikh Rajibul Islam and 

Khaled Hasan who went on to win honorable mention 

in our first call for entries. It was Sheikh Rajibul 

Islam who in 2009 introduced me to the Rohingya 

crisis in Myanmar in an exhibit titled “Waiting to be 

Registered.” The irony is that the Rohingya would 

never be registered as citizens in Myanmar and 

eventually their disenfranchisement led to a genocide 

in 2017 and nearly a million fleeing to Bangladesh 

for safety. 

As climate change became more known as an 

existential threat, again I learned about it early on from 

submissions from Bangladesh—a low-lying country 

the size of North Carolina with a population of 163 

million people. 

I am very privileged to have worked on this issue 

with guest editor Mohammad Rakibul Hasan from 

Dhaka and his wife Fabeha Monir—each talented 

photographers and each contributing their deep 

understanding of the photo community in Bangladesh, 

the history of their nation, and the complexity of the 

problems it faces. 

I am also indebted to Dr. Shahidul Alam for 

providing many of the historical images from 

Bangladesh found in this issue through the photo 

agency, Majority World, that he founded. 

And a word of gratitude to Maranie Rae Staab for 

her brave and powerful photos from the siege of the 

US Capitol on January 6. 

Glenn Ruga 

Executive Editor 

ZEKE SPRING 2021/ 1

ROHINGYA 

Photographs by Turjoy Chowdhury, Sarika Gulati, 

Mohammad Rakibul Hasan, Richard Juilliart 

Bangladesh has been sheltering 1.1 

million Rohingya refugees for more 

than three years, even in the face of 

dwindling foreign aid and with no sign 

of their repatriation in sight. 

The Rohingyas are an ethnic 

group, the majority of whom are Muslim, 

who have lived for centuries in the majority 

Buddhist Myanmar. In 1978, the first expulsion 

of Rohingya occurred as they were driven 

to Bangladesh by the Burmese military 

government. The remaining Rohingya in Burma 

(present day Myanmar) suffered systematic 

ethnic cleansing and were held stateless. 

In 2017, the second wave of Rohingya were 

driven into Bangladesh while Nobel laureate 

Aung San Suu Kyi was State Counselor of 

Myanmar (a position similar to Prime Minister). 

During this expulsion, human rights organizations 

have reported incidents of rape, torture, 

arson, looting, and murder by Myanmar security 

forces. A total of 362 villages have been 

either completely or partially destroyed during 

this campaign. When hundreds of thousands 

of terrified Rohingya refugees began flooding 

onto the beaches and paddy fields of southern 

Bangladesh in August 2017, it was the children 

who caught many people’s attention. 

Allegations of genocide against the 

Myanmar army were filed in the International 

Court of Justice in January 2020. Aung San 

Suu Kyi appeared at the Court and defended 

her nation against the allegation. On February 

1, 2021, the Myanmar military took over 

all reigns of power in a coup and arrested 

Suu Kyi on grounds that the general election 

results were fraudulent. Now the military is 

ruling the country and the fate of the Rohingya 

refugees — both still in Myanmar and those in 

Bangladesh—are as uncertain as ever. 

2 / ZEKE SPRING 2021

Photo by Sarika Gulati 

Dilaara, 18, is gifted with the 

skill of knitting crochet that she 

picked up from a neighbor in 

Myanmar. Today her passion 

for the skill is helping her cope 

with uncertainties. Her mother 

died at a young age and her 

father passed away three years 

ago. She is living with her elder 

brother and sister-in-law in 

Balukhali, Cox’s Bazar. Dilaara 

is associated with an NGO and 

teaches young adolescent girls 

to knit. Teaching also provides 

her income. “I am very happy to 

teach the girls. I spend my time 

constructively and enjoy their 

company. It helps me to forget 

all my worries and keeps me 

busy. I want to continue with it in 

the future”, says Dilaara. 


Photo by Richard 

Juilliart 

Rohingya refugees at a 

hospital at the Kutupalong 

Refugee Camp on March 

17, 2018 in Cox’s Bazar, 

Bangladesh. In November 

2017 there were seven 

named camps in Kutupalong. 

Now there are 20 and there 

are approximately 600,000 

Rohingya refugees in this 

camp alone. 



Photo by Mohammad 

Rakibul Hasan 

Rohingya refugees are 

entering Bangladesh while 

empty houses in the villages 

in Myanmar have been set 

on fire by the Army. 




Photo by Mohammad 

Rakibul Hasan 

A Rohingya mother searching 

for medical care for her malnourished 

child. She and her child 

were without food during their 

exodus from Myanmar to the 

Bangladesh border. 


Photos by Turjoy Chowdhury 

This series of photographs depicts 

portraits of babies who crossed 

the Myanmar-Bangladesh border 

while remaining in the womb 

of Rohingya women during the 

military crackdown in the Rakhine 

state, Myanmar. Born in the refugee 

camps inside Bangladesh, their 

future is in doubt since they are 

stateless. Neither Bangladesh nor 

Myanmar recognizes them as their 

citizens. 


Naser, one month old, born in 

Kutupalong Refugee Camp, Cox’s 

Bazar, Bangladesh. 

A family from the valley of the three 

rivers Apurimac, Ene and Mantaro 

(VRAEM) arriving to establish a new 

settlement on the Sepahua River 

where illegal land grab schemes 

are leading to rapid deforestation 

threatening the people and nature 

in multiple critical protected areas. 

Families such as this one are driven 

out of VRAEM—one of the main 

areas for cultivation of coca in 

Peru—as authorities crack down on 

illegal drug production and they are 

now moving into the remote lowland 

jungles. 


CLIMATE CRISIS 

Photographs by MD Sazzadul Alam, 

Saud A. Faisal, Moniruzzaman Sazal 


Photo by 


Due to river corrosion 

caused by climate change, 

thousands of people lose 

their homes and agricultural 

lands every year in 

Bangladesh. 

Bhola, Bangladesh, June 

2018. 


Over the last two decades, 

Bangladeshis have been 

experiencing sea-level rise 

and increased salinity around 

coastal aquifers as river flooding 

becomes more destructive, and 

cyclones batter their coast with increasing 

intensity — all changes that are 

associated with disruptions in the global 

climate. 

Despite being responsible for only 0.3 

percent of the emissions that cause global 

warming, Bangladesh is near the top of 

the Global Climate Risk Index, a ranking 

of 183 countries and territories most 

vulnerable to climate change. Worldwide, 

the two cities that will have the greatest 

proportional increase in people exposed 

to climate extremes by 2070 are both in 

Bangladesh: Dhaka and Chittagong, with 

Khulna close behind. 

Every day, Dhaka, the capital city of 

Bangladesh, accepts thousands of climate 

refugees fleeing river flooding in the north 

and cyclones in the south. Even without 

the effects of climate change, the country’s 

geography is prone to floods and 

cyclones. Researchers warned that within 

a few decades, Bangladesh may lose 

more than 10 percent of its land due to 

sea-level rise, and may displace as many 

as 20 million people. 

Photo by Moniruzzaman Sazal 

In Manikganj, Bangladesh, at least 50 

homes and other infrastructures have 

been washed away by the Jamuna River, 

while other prominent infrastructure is 

under threat. 

Manikganj, Bangladesh, August 2018. 



Photo by Md Sazzadul 

Alam 

The dire situation of COVID-19 

has made public life miserable. 

There are health risks as well 

as financial complications in 

public life, yet people are trying 

to survive. In July 2020 heavy 

rains caused flooding in Dhaka. 

As a result, the livelihood of 

a section of the society has 

almost come to an end and 

houses have been submerged in 

water. Contaminated water from 

flooding is mixing with drinking 

water which is increasing the risk 

of waterborne diseases causing 

diarrhea, cholera, and various 

skin diseases. It is mostly lowincome 

people who have been 

most affected by this flooding. 

The flooding has been made 

worse by unplanned urbanization, 

filling of reservoirs, dumping 

of garbage, and use of plastic 

and polythene. 

Dhaka, Bangladesh. July 2020. 




Photo by Md Sazzadul Alam 

Waterlogging—the oversaturation 

of ground soil—is the result of 

several hours of rain in old Dhaka. 

Dhaka, Bangladesh. July 2020. 


Photo by Saud A. Faisal 

Bangladesh is the worst victim of global 

climate change, hence a huge population 

faces floods every year. People move to 

the nearest highland to take temporary 

shelter, keeping their home behind in the 

flash floods. Until the water reaches above 

their knees, they try to remain in their homes 

hoping the water will go down. They are the 

water prisoners of Bangladesh. These are 

the people least responsible for the climate 

change but are the most affected. 

Shirajganj, Bangladesh, February, 2016. 



Photo by Saud A. Faisal 

Shirajganj, Bangladesh, February, 

2016. 



COVID 



More than 23,000 inhabitants per 

square kilometer, that is the reality in 

Bangladesh’s capital, Dhaka. In the 

world’s most densely populated countries, 

it is impossible to keep your distance 

even amid a deadly pandemic. 

Almost half of the Bangladeshi population lives 

in the slums without access to clean water and 

adequate sanitation facilities, and is forced to 

travel daily to the city for work. Some of the slum 

dwellers are climate refugees, while others have 

come to Bangladesh in search of a better life. 

The coronavirus has shattered an economy 

where 53.6 million were already earning 

less than 160 taka ($1.9) a day. Workers in 

the ready-made garment sector have been 

hit especially hard. The Bangladesh Garment 

Manufacturers and Exporters Association 

(BGMEA) reports that at least 70,000 people 

were laid off after clothing orders were cancelled 

and exports plunged. Many more Bangladeshis 

risk unemployment during the ongoing pandemic 

and uncertain post-pandemic recovery period. A 

9% rise in the country’s poverty rate to 29.5% in 

June 2020 jeopardizes the substantial progress 

in poverty reduction to date. The South Asian 

Network on Economic Modeling (SANEM) 

predicts poverty levels may reach 40.9% as 

a result of the pandemic. 

The socio-economic insecurity caused 

by the loss of livelihoods compounds 

the psychosocial trauma from the 

loss of over 8,000 lives during the 

pandemic. Experts warn of potential 

long-term socio-economic damage 

within Bangladeshi society if 

the situation is not effectively 

managed. 


This series of photographs by Nazmul 

Hassan Shanji were taken in the Korail 

slum in Dhaka at a maternal, neonatal, 

and child health project run by BRAC, an 

international development organization 

based in Bangladesh. 

Left: Hasiba, an 18-year-old expectant 

mother poses for a portrait while a caregiver 

visits her for a routine checkup in the 

Korail slum in Dhaka. Hasiba is a housewife 

and her husband Suman is currently 

jobless due to the country’s lockdown. 

Right: Anowara Begum, 39 years old, is a 

Shasthya Kormi (community health worker) 

with the Manoshi Project — BRAC’s 

large-scale program for maternal, neonatal 

and child health in the urban slums of 

Bangladesh. She poses for a portrait during 

her daily shift. She ensures awareness 

raising in the community about COVID-19 

such as hand washing, sneezing and 

coughing etiquette, social distancing, 

and reporting potential cases to the area 

manager. 




Naznin Parvin is a referral program 

organizer in the Manoshi Project. 

She poses for a portrait during her 

daily shift in the BRAC maternity 

clinic in the Korail slum. She ensures 

all logistical support such as sticker 

distribution, incentive distribution and 

awareness-raising about COVID-19 

within the community. 


A mother poses for a portrait while 

she takes care of her infant children, 

including a newborn, during the COVID- 

19 pandemic in the Korail slum. Her 

husband is out of the home in search of 

a job during the country’s lockdown. 



Photograph by 

Nazmul Hassan 

Shanji 



Photograph by Nazmul Hassan Shanji 


Photograph by Nazmul Hassan Shanji 



34 / ZEKE SPRING 2021 

Photograph by Nazmul Hassan Shanji


DOMESTIC VIOLENCE 



According to Bangladeshi human 

rights group, Ain o Salish Kendra, 

rape cases in the country almost 

doubled from 2018 to 2019. A 

substantial number of rape victims 

are children. Covid has exacerbated 

this violence, leading to an average 

of over four rape cases a day by October 

2020. These numbers do not reflect the 

extent of the epidemic, with many cases 

unreported due to victims’ fear of blame 

and humiliation, and mistrust in the justice 

system. 

Feminists Across Generations, a movement 

formed to tackle gender-based violence 

in Bangladesh, highlights the conservative, 

patriarchal values embedded into 

societal structures, which create a culture 

that disregards women’s rights. In addition 

to the physical and emotional trauma of 

rape, survivors face the additional trauma 

of community stigma and rejection, including 

ostracization by their own family if the 

perpetrator is a family member. As a result, 

many women flee their homes, and some 

even commit suicide. 

The culture of impunity means that less 

than one percent of reported perpetrators 

are convicted. In the fall of 2020, nationwide 

protests erupted after a woman was 

gang raped in the district of Sylhet while 

her husband was tied up and beaten, and 

again after a video showing several men 

stripping and attacking a woman from a 

disadvantaged community in Noakhali 

district was circulated on the internet. 

On October 12, 2020 the Bangladeshi 

government amended the maximum 

punishment for rapists from life imprisonment 

to the death penalty. However, 

activists emphasize the urgent need for 

the reformation of rape law and measures 

to address the root causes of the issue. 

Recommendations by The Rape Law 

Reform Coalition include providing witness 

protection, gender-sensitization training 

for justice sector actors and education on 

consent in schools. 

Photo by Khaled Hasan 

Acid attacks are a worldwide phenomenon. 

In Bangladesh, a country of 156 

million people, 80 percent of the victims 

are women, many of them below the age 

of 18. It is always their faces that are 

targeted leading to disfigurement and 

blindness. In the last 10 years, there were 

3,000 victims of acid attacks. 



Ayesha (age 11) is as beautiful as her 

name, growing up with her dreams. She 

reads at a high level and loves to play 

Gollachut and Ludu (traditional Bengali 

folk games). Ayesha wants to be a doctor 

and to treat her patients for free. 




Ayesha avoids showing her face 

because of shame. She is experiencing 

traumatic moments in her life. She 

starts crying and describes how her left 

breast was burned by acid. 





In January 2010, 23-year-old Nasrin’s 

husband attacked her with acid. He 

was not satisfied with the dowry her 

parents paid. After two years of marriage, 

he wanted more. Her mother, 

who sells rice cakes to earn a living, 

refused to pay more. Her husband beat 

her up until she fainted, and when she 

was unconscious, he threw acid on her 

face, neck, and hands. 


Photo by Md. Zobayer 

Hossain Joati 

Protestors sing the national 

anthem of Bangladesh 

before starting a protest 

against rape culture in 

Uttara, Dhaka. October 6, 

2020. 



Photo by Md. Zobayer 

Hossain Joati 

A protestor dresses up as a 

rape victim to protest against 

the increasing rape culture in 

Bangladesh in Uttara, Dhaka, 

October 6, 2020. 



Textile worker Razia Begum (30) was beaten 

by her husband when she refused to give 100 

taka (1.20 USD) to her husband. In pain and 

with scars Razia is unable to seek help and 

is having hearing problems now. Due to the 

COVID-19 lockdown she cannot go to any 

hospital for treatment. Tongi, Bangladesh. 

Photo by Fabeha Monir 

BANGLADESH’S 

VISUAL VOICE 

A VITAL HUB FOR DOCUMENTARY PHOTOGRAPHY 

By Mohammad Rakibul Hasan 


Golam Kashem Daddy (1894–1998) is considered the father of photography in Bangladesh, establishing the 

Tropical Institute of Photography in Dhaka in 1951. Photo: Shahidul Alam/Drik 

Two girls, Midnapore 1926. Photo: Golam Kashem 

Daddy/Drik 

For nearly 200 years, photography 

has flourished 

in the unique region of 

Bengal on the Indian 

subcontinent. Bangladesh was 

known as East Pakistan after India 

was partitioned into two sovereign 

countries — India and Pakistan 

— following independence from 

Britain in 1947. 

Photographers from Britain came 

to British India starting in 1840 

to document the historical buildings, 

temples, landscapes and, 

more importantly, its people. There 

were native landlords such as Raja 

Chamba, Maharaja Ramsingh, 

and other princes and elites who 

practiced photography following the 

invention of the camera. 

The Bourne & Shepherd photography 

studio was established in 

1863 in Kolkata, India by British 

photographer Samuel Bourne. It had 

a number of branches across India 

as well as in London and Paris, and 

was one of the most successful photographic 

service providers in 19th 

and 20th century India. After 176 

years of operation it finally closed in 

2016, unable to keep up with digital 

technology. 

Lala Deen Dayal started commercial 

photography in the mid-1870s 

by setting up his studios in Indore, 

Mumbai, and Hyderabad in India. 

Later, he received several commissions 

from the courts of Maharajas 

and Queen Victoria. 

DOCUMENTING THE WAR 

FOR INDEPENDENCE 

Golam Kashem Daddy (1894 – 

1998) is considered the father 

of photography in Bangladesh, 

establishing the Tropical Institute 

of Photography in Dhaka in 1951. 

Yousuf Patel formed the Camera 

Recreation Club there in1962. 

Manzoor Alam Beg was one of the 

pioneers of the Bangladeshi photography 

movement and spent his life 

advocating for the acceptance of 

photography as an honorable and 

dignified profession. He also trained 

photographers by establishing the 

Beg Art Institute of Photography in 

1960 in Dhaka. 

Bangladeshi photography gained 

acceptance during the Bangladesh 

war of liberation against Pakistan 

in 1971. After a nine-month 

bloody conflict where three million 

Bangladeshis died, Bangladesh 

emerged as an independent state led 

by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. 

Photographers Manzoor Alam 

Beg, Rashid Talukder, Aftab Ahmed, 

Anwar Hossain, Sayeeda Khanum, 

Naib Uddin Ahmed, Amanul Haque, 

An unknown man killed by the Pakistani Army during the 

liberation war of Bangladesh (c. 1971) 

Photo: Amiya Tarafder 


Portrait of Manzoor Alam Beg. 

Photo: Shahidul Alam/Drik. 

Mukti’s (freedom fighters) at a training camp in sector 9, Bangladesh. 1971. 

Photo: Beg Art Institute/Drik. 

Rafiqul Islam and many foreign photojournalists 

such as American David 

Burnett and Iranian-born Magnum 

photographer Abbas, documented the 

abuse and genocide carried out by 

the Pakistani army and the preparation 

and struggle for freedom, largely by 

ordinary citizens. 

Prior to independence, the photographic 

style, aesthetics, and image 

processing techniques in Bangladesh 

were derived from western photographers 

and instructors in India. 

Photography had not received the 

status of a fine art in universities or art 

communities in Bangladesh. Following 

independence in 1971, many veteran 

photographers such as Beg, Hossain 

and Dr. Noazesh Ahmed succeeded in 

establishing photography as a form of 

fine art. The Bangladesh Photographic 

Society (1976) and its educational 

wing, the Bangladesh Photographic 

Institute (1989), were both founded 

by Beg. 

Both Bijon Sarkar and Beg pioneered 

photograms and pictorialism though 

these techniques were already in decline 

with western practitioners. Sarkar also 

worked as a cinematographer for television 

and films. Hossain, an architect, 

embraced documentary photography as 

a profession and covered Bangladesh’s 

liberation war. His contemporary 

approach to aesthetics and conceptualism 

earned him the title of modernist. 

It was difficult for women to practice 

photography in Bangladesh, a conservative 

Muslim majority country. Yet, 

Sayeeda Khanum, the first Bangladeshi 

female photographer, embraced the 

challenge and started her career as a 

photographer for Begum Magazine in 

1956, the first Bengali weekly in then- 

East Pakistan. Khanum covered the 

liberation war of Bangladesh as well. 

Following its independence, 

Bangladesh struggled with poor 

infrastructure, a war-torn economy, and 

frequent natural disasters. Gradually, 

foreign aid and loans helped improve 

overall conditions. 

EARLY PHOTOGRAPHY 

PIONEERS 

Among the most noted post-war photographers 

was Rashid Talukder—born 

in India in 1939 to Bangladeshi parents. 

Talukder resettled in Bangladesh 

where he worked for 29 years with 

the Daily Ittefaq while covering the 

war of liberation and was a founder 

of the Bangladesh Photojournalist 

Association. 

Talukder’s photography gave the 

nation a visual voice – a language 

on how to see the reality of life. His 

mastery of black and white photography 

was not only a visual record of 

Bangladesh before and after the birth of 

the country but his pictures of the war of 

liberation are some of the most memorable 

and inspirational images that have 

fostered patriotism for generations. 

RESHAPING THE VISUAL 

CULTURE 

Pioneering photographer Dr. Shahidul 

Alam and anthropologist Rahnuma 

Ahmed founded the first Bangladeshi 

photo agency, Drik Picture Library in 

1989. Dr. Alam reshaped the visual 

culture of the medium in Bangladesh. 

At the time, being a photographer 

in Bangladesh was not considered 

a decent profession or an adequate 

hobby. It was mostly seen as an instrument 

for bringing sin since Islamic law 

prohibits images of any living being. 

As educated and upper class people 

began to accept photographic memories 

as a record of their visual history, 

the rest of Bangladeshi society slowly 

started realizing that depicting the 

human image was not that sinful an act. 

Dr. Alam has always been driven to 

establish photography as the medium 

of free expression in Bangladesh. 

There was not a formal photography 

school in Bangladesh so he founded 

Pathshala South Asian Media Institute 

in Dhaka in 1998 that trained hundreds 

of photographers, many of 

whom went on to successful careers 


Portrait of Rashid Talukder 

Photo: Shahidul Alam/Drik 

Students on the streets during the non-cooperation 

movement of 1970. Bangladesh 

Photo: Rashid Talukder/Drik 

Portrait of Sayeeda Khanum. Photo: Shahidul Alam/Drik. 

A woman takes combat training during the Liberation War. Dhaka, 

Bangladesh. 1971. Photo: Sayeeda Khanum/Drik. 

in photography and media. Under 

Dr. Alam’s strong supervision and 

guidance, the academic institute 

has become one of the vital hubs for 

learning photography. Chobi Mela, 

an initiative of the same institute, is 

the largest international photography 

festival in Asia that began in 2000 

to showcase photography to the 

world. The Pathshala South Asian 

Media Institute has produced some of 

Bangladesh’s finest photographers. 

Among them, Abir Abdullah who practiced 

documentary photography and 

covered numerous political events in 

Bangladesh. Abdullah’s photographs 

show social inequality and depict 

urgent problems that need to be fixed. 

GMB Akash, another admired 

alumnus of Pathshala, captures the 

aesthetics of the vernacular and is 

represented by Panos Pictures. Munem 

Wasif, a graduate from Pathshala and 

now a teacher there, creates black 

and white social documentary work of 

Old Dhaka— images that are remarkable 

due to their nature of connectivity, 

space, and the fluidity of residents 

in Old Dhaka while reflecting subtle 

monochromatic tonalities. 

Andrew Biraj, Saiful Huq Omi, Prito 

Reza, and Taslima Akhter are other 

notable alumni from Pathshala, who 

practice documentary, reportage, and 

photojournalism. Sarker Protick, a member 

of VII Photo Agency and some of 

his noteworthy students from Pathshala 

such as A J Ghani, Habiba Nowrose, 

and Rahul Talukder, have experimented 

in conceptual documentary and fine art 

photography. The school has nurtured 

many of the finest contemporary photographers 

who are successfully practicing 

their profession at home and abroad. 

The Makin Agency of Photography 

(MAP) was founded in 1993 by the 

young and enthusiastic photographers, 

Hasan Saifuddin Chandan, Mahmud, 

Shafiqul Alam Kiron and others. Drik 

and MAP agencies have played a 

leading role in upholding Bangladeshi 

photography to the world and created 

opportunities for other photographers. 

Chandan produced a distinctive style of 


“I collect firewood and sell 

from house to house. Most 

often I get 100 taka 

($1.20). I lost count of 

how many times our 

house was destroyed by 

the storm.” Jaheda Begum, 

45 years old, is a 

mother of four children. 

Since the pandemic, her 

honey collector husband 

is out of work. She lives in the world’s 

largest mangrove forest, the Sundarbans, 

where hundreds of Royal Bengal 

Tigers make their home. The scientists 

forecasted that the whole coastal belt of 

Bangladesh around the Sundarbans will 

be under water by 2050. 

Photo by Mohammad Rakibul Hasan 

Relatives of victims take part in a special prayer near the damaged 

site after the end of the rescue work 20 days following 

the Rana Plaza building collapse in Savar, Dhaka, Bangladesh. 

Photo by K.M. Asad from Cost of Slavery on SDN. 

Fire incidents and casualties are increasing throughout Bangladesh. In 2019, 2,138 people were burnt to death in various fires. 

Photo by Suvra Kanti Das from Blaze on SDN. 

the blended aesthetics of social documentary 

and street photography with 

a formalist attitude. It was prominently 

observed in his photo book The People 

at Kamalapur Railway Station (1994). 


Approximately 8,000 people have been killed and more than 

twice as many injured during the earthquake in Nepal on 

April 25, 2015. Photo by Khaled Hasan from Tragedy of the 

Spirit in Nepal on SDN. 

A NEW GENERATION 

Global market trends in the 21st century 

have helped Bangladesh become 

an emerging economy and middleincome 

country. The availability of low 

cost labor, especially for wealthy Gulf 

countries, and the rise of the garment 

industry have rendered new job opportunities, 

especially for village women. 

The garment industry has now become 

one of the most important sources of 

foreign currency for the country. 

With the increased purchasing 

power of this new middle class, photography 

is now financially accessible 

to a large portion of a younger generation. 

A new cohort of Pathshala alumni 

such as Khaled Hasan, Munir Uz 

Zaman, Jashim Salam, Probal Rashid, 

Suvra Kanti Das, Jannatul Mawa, and 

K M Asad are doing extraordinary 

work in photojournalism and documentary. 

Many contemporary photographers 

who studied abroad—especially 

at Ateneo de Manila University, Danish 

School of Media and Journalism, and 

International Center of Photography 

(ICP)—have also embarked on careers 

as documentary photographers. 

Among them are Mohammad Ponir 

Hossain who won the Pulitzer Prize, 

Mahammad Rakibul Hasan who is a 

Lucie Awards laureate, Fabeha Monir 

who contributes to the New York

Mazar-e Sharif 

Golmud 

eh 

N 

AN 

dahar 

chi 

Quetta 

Sukkur 

Kabul 

Indus 

Hyderabad 

Jamnagar 

Rawalpindi 

Indus 

Rajkot 

Islamabad 

Bombay 

Gujranwala 

Faisalabad 

Multan 

Bahawalpur 

Panaji 

Bikaner 

Ahmadabad 

Vadodara 

Surat 

Ulhasnagar 

Pune 

Mangalore 

L a c c a d i v e S e a 

Srinagar 

Lahore 

New Delhi 

Krishna R. 

Belgaum 

Cochin 

Jaipur 

Indore 

Indus 

Sholapur 

Bangalore 

Agra 

Bhopal 

Narmada 

Coimbatore 

INDIA 

Godavari R. 

Madurai 

Ganges 

Nagpur 

Hyderabad 

Kanpur 

Allahabad 

Krishna R. 

Jabalpur 

Madras 

Tiruchchirappalli 

Mominul Islam and his wife Sharvanu. Mominul thought his wife 

Colombo 

died in the Rana Plaza collapse, only to find that she was in 

critical condition at the Dhaka Medical College hospital. Photo 

by Ismail Ferdous from After Rana Plaza, ZEKE magazine. 

Bangladesh 

Salween 

Ganges 

A BRIEF HISTORY OF 

Varanasi 

Dhanbad 

Religion 

Bay 

Vishakhapatnam 

Muslims in Bangladesh of 

constitute 90% of the population. 

While the remaining 10% 

Bengal 

belong to several different religions, 

Hinduism is the largest 

minority religion in the country. 

Language 

The official language of 

Bangladesh is Bengali. 

Population 

Bangladesh is one of the 

world’s most densely populated 

countries, where 164 million 

people are packed into 57,000 

square miles. That’s a space 

SRI LANKA 

environmental challenges, 

including political instability, 

corruption, poverty, overpopulation 

and climate change. 

TIMELINE OF KEY 

POLITICAL Andaman EVENTS Islands 

1576 

Bengal became part of the 

Mogul Empire. The Andaman majority Sea of 

East Bengal converts to Islam. 

1757–1947 

Ruled by British India 

Britain withdraws from subconti- 

70˚E 75˚E 80˚E roughly the 85˚E size of North 90˚E 95˚E 

Times, Der Spiegel and is a member 

Carolina containing half the 

nent. India divides into Hindu- 

India and Muslim- 

of Women Photograph. Pavel Rahman, population of the United States. 0majority 

Syed Zakir Hossin, Shehzad Noorani, The capital city of Dhaka, which 

majority Pakistan. Fifteen million 

is about the size of Philadelphia 

people displaced and 1-2 million 

Turjoy Chowdhury, and Ismail Ferdous 

at 118 square miles, is home to 

killed. 

0 

500 KM 

have all been doing outstanding work almost 21 million inhabitants. A largely Muslim state comprising 

East and West Pakistan 

with socio-political impact. Ismail 

Ferdous is a regular contributor to 

Climate 

established, Parallel on scale either at side 25˚S of 0˚E 

National Geographic Magazine. 

Tropical monsoons and frequent 

India. 

floods and cyclones inflict heavy 

Photography education in 

damage in the delta region. 1952 

Bangladesh remains a challenge 

Most of the country’s land area The Bengali Language 

although the situation has been improving. 

Since 2017 Pathshala offers an 

New York City, and during the the Pakistani leadership reiter- 

is no higher above sea level than Movement came to a head when 

undergraduate degree in photography 

and a postgraduate diploma in 

the official language of Pakistan. 

rainy season more than one-fifth ated that only Urdu would be 

of the country can be flooded 

at once. 

film and television after receiving the 

Large-scale protests ensue with 

accreditation from the University of Economy and Politics students being killed, injured, 

and arrested. The Bengali 

Dhaka. The Counter Foto – A Center Bangladesh has achieved 

Language Movement continued 

for Visual Arts now also provides a 

significant strides in human and 

to gain momentum and eventually 

catalyzed the rise of Bengali 

social development since independence. 

However, Bangladesh 

postgraduate degree in photography 

and is affiliated with National 

nationalist movements in East 

continues to face numerous 

Pakistan. 

University of Bangladesh. 

political, economic, social and 

INDIA 

NEPAL 

Kolkata 

CHINA 

BHUTAN 

Dhaka 

1947 

Lhasa 

BANGLADESH 

Ganges 

Chittagong 

Monywa 

Sittwe 

Brahmaputra 

INDIA 

MYANMAR 

Jinsha R. 

Nicobar Islands 

Huang Ha 

By Fabeha Monir 

Mandalay 

Salween R. 

Chiang Mai 

Rangoon 

Mekong 

1970 

Bengali nationalists in East 

Pakistan triumphed in nationwide 

elections. Awami League is led 

by Sheikh 25˚N Mujibur Rahman. The 

ruling military government, based 

in West Pakistan, fears losing 

its grip. 

1971 

A last-ditch effort to avert war 

occurred 20˚N in Dhaka, the capital 

of East Pakistan. From March 16 

to 24, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman 

and Yahya Khan met, discussed 

the issues, and seemingly 

reached an agreement. But on 

March 25, Mujibur was arrested 

and 60-80,000 

15˚N 

West Pakistani 

soldiers, who had been infiltrating 

East Pakistan for several 

months, began what would be 

known as Operation Searchlight, 

the massacre of Bengali civilians 

by Pakistani 

10˚N 

soldiers. Massive 

atrocities took place against the 

Bengali, over 3 million died. 

Chumphon 

Jinsha R. 

The People’s Republic of 

Bangladesh was founded as a 

constitutional, secular, democratic, 

multiparty, parliamentary 

republic. 

Strait of Malacca 

2017 

500 Miles 

35˚N 

30˚N 

Myanmar military launches 

deadly attacks against Rohingya 

minority, forcing hundreds 

of thousands to flee into 

neighboring Bangladesh. Over 

1.1 million Rohingyas remain 

stranded in crowded camps 

in Bangladesh while the 

international community fails to 

provide a resolution to the crisis. 

As Bangladesh contends with 

the coronavirus pandemic while 

serving as one of the world’s 

largest refugee host countries, 

it serves as a reminder of the 

disproportionate responsibility 

carried by low-income countries 

of hosting refugees and the 

resulting challenges. 


Rahnuma Ahmed 

Interview 

WITH SHAHIDUL ALAM 

Shahidul Alam is an award-winning Bangladeshi 

activist photographer, writer, curator, and educator 

who, for 35 years, has used his camera as a social 

justice tool, expanding photography’s possibilities. 

After earning a PhD in organic chemistry in London, 

he discovered photography and realized it was a 

more potent tool for social justice. He returned to 

Bangladesh to work as a photojournalist. There, he 

founded Drik, the first photo agency and gallery in 

Bangladesh; the first photography school, Pathshala 

South Asia Media Institute, which now gives a 

four-year degree in photography and a post graduate 

diploma in filmmaking; the Chobi Mela Photography 

Festival and more recently, Majority World Agency, 

for which he is the Chairman. 

By Michelle Bogre 

Michelle Bogre interviewed Shahidul 

Alam on November 23, 2020. 

Michelle Bogre: What was the first project 

for which you received international 

recognition? 

MB: That’s an interesting point: how 

editors and media publish photographs 

that fit what they think about a country. 

Our challenge has been to use photographs 

to change those perceptions. 

Is that happening now or is the media 

still guilty of publishing images that fit 

preconceptions? 

SH: We’re still guilty, but there has been 

a shift, though by no means is it as significant 

a shift as it should be. News outlets 

are still sending white Western photographers 

to countries like Bangladesh, but 

that is changing too because now people 

recognize that there are very good photographers 

here, and with budgets down 

it’s more expensive to send people. 

MB: Recently there has been a lot of 

focus on the role of the photographer, 

and who should photograph whom. How 

do we navigate this? 

SA: We should always be concerned 

about who is photographing whom, but I 

think we should also be concerned about 

who’s representing whom, whether it be 

through photography or text. We can fall 

into the trap of thinking that only a person 

from the community is the right person. I 

think it’s the individual’s politics that determine 

whether it’s the right person or not, 

not the ethnicity, skin color or any other 

attributes you might consider. Stuart Hall 

says a Black man with a black camera 

will not necessarily take Black photographs. 

I’ll go beyond that in the sense 

that photography and photographers 

are not monolithic. I, as a Bangladeshi 

photographer, will not necessarily have 

a sensibility that is more acceptable than 

that of a white Western photographer 

solely because I am a Bangladeshi photographer. 

There are white male photographers 

who are extremely sensitive, fair 

and respectful in their approach. There 

are Black women photographers who are 

exactly the opposite and obviously the 

other way around as well. I also think my 

point of view should be challenged just 

as much as that of anyone else because 

I believe in that plural space. It would be 

dangerous if I was the only one telling a 

particular story, regardless of how honest 

and idealistic I consider myself to be. I 

think that approaching a story from a 

multiplicity of directions is necessary. 

MB: I’ve always said that it was the 

intent that mattered, but I think personal 

politics is actually a more nuanced 

approach. Documentary photography is 

extremely political. We need to understand 

that. 

SA: Absolutely. I also think the definition 

of documentary needs to be much 

broader than it has been in the past. 

I treat documentary photography as 

anything non-fictional and within that 

Shahidul Alam: What I consider my 

seminal work (in 1990) did not get 

recognized until much later. I was 

documenting the fall of General Ershad 1 

and taking pictures in the streets. I sent 

my pictures to all the major newspapers 

but no one was interested. A democratic 

movement in Bangladesh just wasn’t 

sexy. Then in 1991 there was a deadly 

cyclone and suddenly we were inundated 

with requests for photographs because 

images of dead bodies and disaster 

pictures from the aftermath of the cyclone 

was something that fit with the profile of 

Bangladesh. So that was my first major 

assignment. 

A barber in Balakot, Pakistan, resumed business after the 2005 Kashmir earthquake. ©2015 Shahidul Alam. 


Shahidul Alam’s exhibition, Kalpana’s Warriors, on display in 2016 at Autograph in London, uses photographs 

printed on large straw mats, each illuminated by one candle to break the silence surrounding the disappearance 

of Kalpana Chakman, a Bangladeshi human rights activist, abducted by gunpoint in 1996 and never seen 

again. ©Zoe Maxwell. 

space there is a range of vocabulary that 

it should embrace. We have often put it 

in a box. Today we live in a different cultural 

space with a different visual media 

landscape. For me to be speaking coherently, 

I need to be able to speak a language 

that others can relate to. I think the 

language of the recipient is much more 

important than the language of the transmitter. 

In the past we have given so much 

space to the integrity of the “author”, and 

we celebrated them as heroes, but if no 

one understands, whatever they’re saying 

is irrelevant. 

MB: I agree and in my book, Documentary 

Photography Reconsidered, I advocated 

for a far broader definition of what 

documentary should be in the 21st 

century, including anything non-fictional, 

poetic, non-linear, even work that was 

constructed maybe, but not staged. If 

we don’t expand how we photograph, 

we’re not going to reach the audiences 

today because they are far more visually 

sophisticated than they were in the past. 

SA: There is that, but also just as a craft, 

photography needs to grow and mature. I 

also think that photographers do themselves 

a disservice by keeping to themselves. 

They should be engaging with 

writers, poets, musicians, and dancers 

because it enriches our practice. 

MB: Tell us about why you were arrested 

and the genesis of your new book, The Tide 

Will Turn 2 . 

SA: The government has gone after me 

before. All I was doing this time was 

photographing and live streaming the 

student protests. I think my arrest occurred 

because there was an election coming 

up and they thought they were going 

to lose and my work was pointing out 

all the problems with the regime. They 

came for me at night when my partner 

wasn’t home and I thought to myself “my 

task is to stay alive long enough to let 

people know that this is happening.” So 

I resisted, I yelled, I made as much noise 

as I possibly before I was handcuffed, 

blindfolded, and taken away. That night 

I was interrogated and tortured and told 

to make all sorts of confessions, which of 

course I did not. The following morning 

in court I told the judge what happened, 

and usually when a person talks about 

being tortured, the judge is meant to have 

that investigated. But in my case, as it 

happens in other cases as well, sadly, 

none of that was done. 

MB: How were you able to be creative 

and continue your activism during this 

awful experience? 

SA: I decided I would not waste a single 

day. So every day I interviewed people. 

They were quite happy to have someone 

speak to them and I got wonderful 

insights, amazing stories from people 

such as convicted murderers and political 

prisoners who I might never have met 

on the outside. What I could not do was 

take pictures, but that didn’t stop me from 

seeing. I used my time to train myself 

to observe my observation. I remember 

in one case looking at the jail building. 

It’s a dank gray, and it was a cloudy 

day where the sky almost merged with 

the greyness of this building and I gave 

myself a challenge: if I were Ansel Adams 

and I was trying to use the zone system, 

what would I have done technically to 

separate the building from the clouds? 

I’ve never studied the sky as carefully as 

I did in jail. Every day I looked at the 

moon and the stars. I saw how the moon 

moved across the sky and how the stars 

rotated and all those sorts of things. I 

used all those sensory bits to relate to 

this bigger world outside that I needed to 

stay in touch with. So when I came out I 

had all these interesting stories to tell that 

became the book. 

MB: You have been a social activist most 

of your life. What is the social function 

of photography today when millions of 

photographs are taken daily? 

SA: I still see photography as one of the 

most powerful ways to get ideas across. 

Sadly, much of it is used for frivolous 

things such as advertising which has 

embraced the tool and pumped billions of 

dollars into it to shape our minds. The fact 

that photography still is such a powerful 

conveyor of messages is something 

that we have not used sufficiently. Today 

with social media where visuals increase 

engagement far better than text does, to 

not use photographs better, I think is a 

tremendous waste. So one of the things 

I’m now working on is ensuring that 

photography does not only live in the 

photographic magazine or some of the 

printed pages, but reaches out to spaces 

where it would not otherwise have an 

effect. So we do outdoor shows, we stick 

laminated images on a village school 

wall, things like that. 

MB: Bringing photographs back to the 

people is important today because it 

slightly changes the existing power 

imbalance between a photographer and 

the subject, who generally has no say in 

how her story is being told. 

SA: It challenges the power structure but 

it doesn’t mitigate it because the pictures 

and the photographer are a very tiny part 

of the process. The dissemination process 

is the most powerful -- the picture editors, 

the publishers, the online platforms and 

the algorithms that control them are very, 

very powerful and not always recognized 

for the influence that they have. Until we’re 

able to intervene across that spectrum, we 

will not have dented the process. 

Continued on page 77 


BOOK 

REVIEWS 

EDITOR: MICHELLE BOGRE 

136: I AM ROHINGYA 

By Saiful Huq Omi 

Schilt Publishing, 2018 

144 pages | $50 

they’re tryin’ to take away my pride 

by stripping me of everything I own 

they’re tryin’ to hurt me inside. 

Saiful Huq Omi’s book of black 

and white photographs,136: I am 

Rohingya, evokes the above lyrics 

from Tracy Chapman’s hit song, Born 

to Fight. This reflection follows the May 

2012 experience in Myanmar when 

three Rohingya men allegedly raped 

and bludgeoned to death a 27-year-old 

Buddhist woman from the Rakhine State. 

Subsequently, revenge killings and persecution 

led to 136 Rohingya attempting 

to cross the border in transit boats to 

neighboring Bangladesh. Unfortunately, 

these desperate refugees were denied 

entry and forced to return to Myanmar 

with many permanently disappearing in 

the process. 

As a people, the Rohingya became a 

controversially hated ethnic tribe following 

colonization’s interruption of Myanmar’s 

social order, according to Tomás Ojea 

Quintana in the book’s foreword. Later, 

the people were rendered stateless and 

became “illegal immigrants” devoid of 

civil liberties in Myanmar and many 

parts of the world. Omi’s book of photographs 

features the mundane daily life of 

the Rohingya in refugee camps around 

Bangladesh. The photographer’s roving 

eye for the dynamism of composition interprets 

the cruel persecution of the people 

whose origin and existence remain desperate 

and denied while the world watches. 

Anwara Khatun (pseudonym) with a photograph of her stepfather, who tried to rape her on several occasions. On each occasion, 

Anwara’s mother saved her and eventually her stepfather killed her mother. A case has been filed against him for the 

murder of her mother but he has not yet been arrested. 

This book with accompanying text, and 

a poem by Bina Sarkar Ellias, 136: I am 

Rohingya, condemns the blatant abuse 

of the Rohingya. It depicts the inhumane, 

shameful, and brutal acts revisited on their 

physical body and psyche. 

Imitating charcoal and wash drawings 

with strong tonal effects, Omi’s images 

show this poor society’s contact with 

water, humble commercial and recreational 

activities, and the attempt to ease 

the pangs of oppression. For example, 

a series of photographs captioned 

Fenced in, broke out. Broke in, fenced 

out portrays a family climbing over the 

barbed-wire border fence in the dead 

of night. One chilling print shows a little 

girl looking straight at the viewer while 

enveloping a strand of fence wire in the 

palm of her tiny right hand. According 

to Omi, the border police arrested the 

girl’s entire family as soon as they entered 

Bangladesh and quickly pushed them 

back to the cauldron of Myanmar. 

An eclectic array of posed and 

spontaneous photographs foregrounds 

the shocking representation of the cruelty 

imposed on the purported “other.” The 

subject matter of these images includes 

soldiers and the police with guns, almost 

nude, tortured bodies, and scenes exploring 

the Rohingya’s spiritual dimensionality. 

For example, in an image captioned 

Look in me. Be my silent, Omi depicts 

Hasina Begum with her mutilated, scared 

bare back facing the viewer. According 

to the caption, Begum sells sex for survival 

after being shot in her back by the 

police as a little girl, raped several times 

as a teenager, and then as an adult, sold 

to a Bangladeshi man for $10. 

These emotionally-laden but aesthetically 

pleasing compositions portray 

sexual violence, exploitation, extreme 

emotions displaying personal troubles, 

decaying, sick, and abused human flesh. 

As a result, the forceful compositions veer 

towards the fault lines of the controversy 

over images that employ aesthetics to represent 

the horrendous and abject body. 

This is most apparent in the image captioned 

Ali Mia suffered from an ‘unknown’ 

disease. Omi’s troubling composition 

depicts the half-dressed Mia sitting on a 

mat, bending forward, with his back facing 

the viewer. The composition positions 

his ailing body to reveal emaciated rib 

bones and vertebral column consumed by 

the ‘unknown’ illness. Omi writes that Mia 

waited to die in Bangladesh after he was 

refused medical attention because of his 

Rohingya identity. 

Some images also seem to straddle the 

line between documentary and fine art 

photography while depicting the people’s 

emotions in worship as they cry and smile. 

Generally, these compositions contrast 

symmetrical and asymmetrical lines enclosing 

substantial tonal variations to frame 

normalized scenes of human suffering. 

In this book, Omi expresses his commitment 

to human rights through visual narratives 

encapsulating photography, film, 

and television. Covering a ten-year journey 

from 2008, documenting the life and struggles 

of the Rohingya in Bangladesh, 136: 

I am Rohingya is an essential addition 

to activism against human rights abuses, 

but also forms part of the aesthetics that 

beautify wretchedness. 

—Kolodi Senong 


TWO WOMEN IN THEIR 

TIME: THE BELARUS FREE 

THEATRE AND THE ART OF 

RESISTANCE 

By Misha Friedman 

Introduction by Masha Gessen 

The New Press, 2020 

136 pages | $21.99 

Two Women in Their Time: The 

Belarus Free Theatre and the Art of 

Resistance (Two Women) by photographer 

Misha Friedman and writer 

Masha Gessen is a complex chronicle of 

traditional and 

political boundaries 

breached 

in the name 

of public, 

personal, 

and artistic 

freedom. 

Two Women 

introduces us 

to the Belarus 

Free Theatre (the Theatre) and Svetlana 

Sugako and Nadezhda Brodskya, chosen 

by the Theatre’s co-founders, Nikolai 

Khalezin and Natalia Kaliada, (currently 

exiled and living in London) to manage 

the Theatre in Minsk, Belarus. 

The Theatre has been performing for 

social and political justice for 15 of the 

26 years that the totalitarian regime of 

Alexander Lukashenko has controlled 

Belarus, formerly a Soviet republic. 

While the exiled co-founders direct and 

rehearse the Theatre’s productions via 

Skype, Brodskaya and Sugako manage 

the Theatre while actively opposing the 

Lukashenko regime and living their own 

truth as LGBTQ life partners in a hostile 

cultural environment. 

Together, Friedman who was born in 

Moldova and has a savvy sense of the 

Soviet/Russian world, and Gessen, a 

staff writer at The New Yorker, transport 

us to a place we can better understand 

through their collaboration. Gessen 

perceptively details the challenges 

Brodskaya and Sugako face living as 

a couple in a totalitarian country and 

managing a theater of opposition. Their 

writing provides the backstory, and they 

contextualize Friedman’s intriguing, but 

often not captioned, photographs. 

Sveta Sugako and Nadya Brodskya—the Belarus Free Theatre’s managers. 

The book is divided into three sections. 

The first section introduces us to the theater 

group. Friedman begins with a series 

of night exposures outside the converted 

garage that serves as the theatre’s current 

home. The mixed exterior and interior 

lighting offers a sense of enchantment; 

backlit small groups leave the theater, 

encircled in light as if they have physically 

absorbed the performance. Many 

of the pictures depict the simple facts of 

daily theater management. The photos 

become more evocative when Sugako 

visits her mother and then travels to her 

home to take a sauna with her father. 

These are intimate portraits of Belarusians 

as they may have been in Soviet times 

and continue to be today. 

I was in Belarus in 2018, and it felt like 

I had traveled back in time. I have that 

sensation again when Friedman follows 

the women through Minsk at night. His 

use of composition and light is often gorgeous; 

we see the sculptured cityscape, 

ride the night trolley, then take a car ride 

out of the city to their dacha. Friedman 

focuses on the old farm they bought for 

$3000. This is rural Belarus, where life is 

more relaxed. It becomes apparent why 

they choose to stay in Belarus in spite of 

the arrests and other political dangers. 

This dacha is their Eden. 

The second part features the theatre in 

performance and on tour. An angelic portrait 

of Sugako anchors the section’s title 

page. Brodskaya is shown in Rembrandtstyle 

chiaroscuro supervising the sound 

and lights at a rehearsal in Finland. 

Pictures of Brodskaya and Sugako at a 

protest march in New York City, and at 

Toronto Pride, add to the LGBTQ narrative 

of the book. 

In the final section we return to 

Belarus and the world of shadows. In 

one photograph, we are looking into 

the theatre half blinded by red stage 

lights glaring at us. Again we see 

backlit groups of theatergoers standing 

outside at night. This repeats similar 

pictures sequenced at the beginning 

of the book, perhaps to create a 

sense of closure. Gessen’s text tells of 

outdoor impromptu performances with 

LGBTQ themes, homophobic protests, 

and the subsequent arrests of several 

performers. The text reveals the truths 

behind the pictures, how the troupe 

members are detained for trumped-up 

reasons, withstand demeaning prison 

conditions, and are forced to sign 

fabricated confessions. 

Ultimately, Friedman and Gessen are 

witnesses to a story of survival. Brodskaya 

and Sugako shuffle international acclaim 

with ghost-like lives at home. Their energy 

is dedicated to finding a balance between 

maintaining a theatre of resistance focused 

on regime change and creating a stable, 

loving life together. 

—Frank Ward 


THE AMERIGUNS 

By Gabriele Galimberti 

Interviews and text by Gea Scancarello 

Dewi Lewis Publishing, 2020 

136 pages | $49 

On a typical day, one would 

feel quite cozy in Stephen F. 

Wagner’s den. His walls are 

filled with family pictures, Christmasred 

candlesticks, a sign “welcome 

friends” on the fireplace mantle, and 

diplomas that must fill him with pride. 

But this is not a typical day. Today he 

is posing with his beloved collection of 

firearms — dozens of pistols, revolvers, 

and shotguns on the floor, against the 

wall, and even leaning on a safe which 

boasts the word “liberty.” So begins The 

Ameriguns, an investigation into the civilian 

gun collectors and multiple-firearm 

owners, accounting for America having 

more guns than people. 

Despite there being around 1,400 firearms 

in the photographs taken by Italian 

photographer, Gabriele Galimberti, this 

is not a book about guns; guns are a 

gateway to the question: What makes 

an American? Short essays by journalist 

Gea Scancarello and a curated sample of 

the subjects’ social media posts, snapshots 

and quotes, create links between 

gun amassment and American values. 

Accordingly, the book is organized into 

four chapters based on the principles 

Scancarello identifies as forces intertwined 

with gun collection: liberty, family, 

style, and passion. 

State College, Pennsylvania, Stephen F. Wagner, 66. © Gabriele Galimberti from The Ameriguns, www.dewilewis.com 

Of the four values structuring the book, 

family stands out. The bond between guns 

and family, identified by the authors of 

the book, is the most powerful piece of 

The Ameriguns, but it also highlights what 

is lacking. While the authors draw beautiful 

connections between gun ownership 

and personal values, they miss the mark 

when it comes to the ultimate question: 

does possessing these values make gun 

ownership American? 

Galimberti employs the same photographic 

style he has used for other projects 

—environmental portraits featuring 

subjects surrounded by household objects 

intentionally laid out. In The Ameriguns, 

guns are the household objects. The 

subjects are featured in their personal 

space alongside their firearm collections, 

carefully organized in the frame by 

Galimberti, as he describes: “…as if each 

object was [sic] an integral part of the 

environment surrounding the subject.” As 

if. Despite attempting to add dimension to 

the subjects by using their names, social 

media accounts, and personal tidbits, his 

characters remain just that: characters. 

This is most evident in the portrait of 

15-year-old Mia Farinelli, a competitive 

markswoman who has been shooting 

since the age of seven. She stands on 

her bed, posing provocatively, hands 

on hips, almost barricaded by the guns 

propped up against the bed. On the left 

side of the frame, on a neatly organized 

desk, sits a small mirror. Revealed in its 

reflection, tucked behind the muzzle of a 

rifle, is a glimpse of the photographer. It 

is a reminder that these guns tell us very 

little about this young girl, just as this 

young girl tells us very little about guns in 

America 

The photographs — both Galimberti’s 

and those gathered from social media 

posts — reflect a popular view of 

America: they are loud, proud, and reliant 

on objects as a proxy for identity. It 

seems the value Galimberti most associates 

with America, a value he shares in 

his aesthetic style, is showmanship. The 

images reflect an idea of America that 

plays in Westerns and on the news, in 

Budweiser ads and trending hashtags 

online. Fittingly, most of his subjects were 

found via social media. While previously 

reserved for shooting ranges and club 

meets, guns are now a typical sight on 

Instagram and YouTube. 

The title of the book is a nod to Robert 

Frank’s The Americans (1958), a poetic, 

lyrical, but critical look at the nuance 

and complexity of 1950’s America. 

Unfortunately, The Ameriguns lacks 

Frank’s poetry and nuance. In fairness, 

the psychoanalysis of a nation is not an 

easy task. Perhaps an impossible one. 

Nonetheless, it is disappointing that The 

Ameriguns seems to takes America at face 

value. The final words in the book are a 

quote that reads: “I think revolvers are the 

quintessence of this nation.” The authors 

appear to agree. What may have begun 

as a cultural investigation has culminated 

in mimesis, in showmanship America 

photographed in showmanship style. 

—Dana Melaver 


THE TIDE WILL TURN 

By Shahidul Alam 

Steidl, 2020 

184 pages | $30 

Bangladeshi photographer and 

activist Shahidul Alam’s powerful 

new book, written after his 

release in November 2018 from more 

than 100 days in jail for criticizing the 

government’s violent response to student 

demonstrations, is a timely testament to 

truth and bearing witness. It is an elegy 

to resistance, justice, resilience, and 

hope. But mostly it is a book about dignity—chronicling 

Alam’s own story and 

those of others who have risen up amid 

oppression. Part memoir and part history, 

the book pays homage to Bangladeshi 

photographers who came before him, 

to the protesters holding politicians to 

account to uphold democracy, and to 

the quiet dignity of the marginalized— 

migrant workers, sex workers, stigmatized 

rape victims, and refugees. “I realized 

how important the photograph was 

as a weapon of change, it represented 

hope and belief,” Alam writes. 

Divided into three parts, The Tide Will 

Turn is not a typical photo book. Each 

section is comprised of lengthy text that 

reads like a novel and flows like a dream, 

illustrated by stunning photo plates, some 

by Alam, most by others who deeply 

influenced and inspired him over the 

years. Covering history, observations, and 

memories, the book highlights three essential 

drivers of Alam’s work: his passion for 

art, photography, and politics. His images 

range from Bangladeshi migrants in Dubai 

sending letters home to a rally in Dhaka, 

the 1991 cyclone, and photos of “those 

little acts of kindness” that he received 

in prison—gifts of drawings, artwork, a 

homemade radio. He painstakingly thanks 

the dozens from around the world who 

helped him get out of prison. 

He also asks, “What makes a photograph 

iconic?” Citing Rashid Bhai, 

Bangladesh’s best-known photographer, 

he devotes substantive commentary to 

Bhai’s famous photo of a dismembered 

head of a slain intellectual, an image that 

still haunts Alam and acts as a rallying 

cry. With 23 pages of photos, Alam 

salutes all the photographers 

who preserved 

memories of the 1971 

war for independence, 

calling them “freedom 

fighters with a lens.” He 

also chronicles the evolution 

of photography in 

Bangladesh from the 

early camera clubs, to the photographic 

society, to the salons, to the Drik photo 

library that he founded with his partner 

in 1989, to the picture agencies, and 

the noted Chobi Mala festival. Alam is 

modest, barely noting his influential roles 

organizing these institutions that have 

made Bangladesh a center of documentary 

photography. “I have long been in 

search of an aesthetic not derived entirely 

from the West,” he writes. 

Though centered in Bangladesh, the 

book’s themes are universal. “Art that 

reaches deep into the conscience and 

doesn’t let you forget,” says editor Vijad 

Prashad in a preface. 

Alam makes us all remember the 

dignity and beauty of every human 

being, no matter how marginalized. An 

entire section is devoted to three women 

who deeply influenced him. The first is 

Ferdousi, an artist and rape survivor, 

who imparted dignity on others, “which 

she herself had been brutally denied,” 

he says. Another subject is a former sex 

worker whom Alam met in 

1996, Hazera Beagum, 

who now runs an orphanage 

for 30 abandoned 

children. The pictures in 

this section show her joy 

and her devotion to these 

children. 

Alam also devotes a 

photo sequence to Kalpana Chakma, 

a human rights activist who went missing 

decades ago. He has been trying to 

photograph evidence (real and imagined) 

of her disappearance. “I am gripped 

by Kalpana. She gives me bearing,” he 

writes. “I have been trying for many years 

to tell the stories of absence.” He wants to 

“push photography where it is uncomfortable.” 

It is a haunting sequence that takes 

documentary in a new direction. 

A letter from Indian author Arundhati 

Roy, sent to Alam while he was imprisoned 

in 2018, punctuates the message 

of the book. (The book title is from this 

letter.) Roy wrote: “I believe the tide will 

turn. It will. It must. This foolish, shortsighted 

cruelty will give way to something 

kinder and more visionary.” 

The Tide Will Turn is Alam’s emphatic 

statement: he is alive and the fight continues 

for “a world for us all, white brown 

short tall, the boisterous and the meek.” 

—Barbara Ayotte 

This is the most well-known image of the collapse of the Rana Plaza garment factory in Bangladesh. The photographer, Taslima 

Akhter, teaches at Pathshala. April 2013 


BRIEFLY 

NOTED 

I’M NOT ON YOUR 

VACATION: GREETINGS 

FROM CAPE COD 

By Brian Kaplan 

Kehrer Verlag, 2020 

116 pages | $50 

FROM TRAGEDY TO LIGHT: 

30 YEARS OF THE ALEXIA 

By Aphrodite Thevos Tsairis 

Syracuse University, 2020 

176 pages | $40 

STILL HERE 

By Vivian Rutsch 

Kehrer Verlag, 2020 

240 pages | €35 

For most people, Cape Cod represents 

idyllic summer vacations by 

the sea: an escape to sun-drenched 

days at the beach, over-indulgence in 

fried clams and ice cream, and cocktail 

infused sunsets. But there are other sides 

to this vacation hub few people witness. 

For one, there are the thousands of 

international workers who flock to the 

Cape each summer to do the behindthe-scenes 

grunt work. They come from 

Jamaica and eastern Europe – students 

from Russia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Lithuania, 

and Moldova. Many work two or three 

jobs at a time, earning more money in 

a week than they could in a month back 

home. 

Then there are the locals and transplants 

who live on the Cape year-round. 

They are the ones who remain after the 

mass exodus of tourists when motels, restaurants, 

and clam shacks shut down for 

the season as the coastline is pummeled 

by powerful winter storms. The Cape Cod 

they know can be quiet, lonely, and raw. 

In I’m Not on Your Vacation, Bostonbased 

photographer Brian Kaplan 

focuses on this other side of life on the 

Cape. His large format camera portraits 

of seasonal workers, deserted landscapes, 

and narrative still lifes give us a 

unique insight into this fascinating place 

and its multiple, contrasting worlds. 

From Tragedy to Light: 30 Years of 

the Alexia is a compilation of 30 

years of photographs taken by 

dozens of Alexia Foundation for World 

Peace grant recipients. The Alexia 

Foundation was created in 1991 by 

Dr. Peter and Aphrodite Tsairis in honor 

of their daughter, Alexia, a Syracuse 

University photojournalism student who 

was killed in the bombing of Pan Am 

103 on December 21, 1988 on a flight 

home for Christmas after spending a 

semester abroad in London. 

In honor of their beloved daughter’s 

passion for photography, her parents 

set up the Alexia Foundation for World 

Peace, a grant foundation that supports 

photographers doing the photojournalistic 

work Alexia dreamed of one day doing 

herself. The recipients for the Alexia grant 

demonstrate passion for a special brand 

of photojournalism. They must aim to go 

beyond simply raising awareness and, 

with the help of their powerful images, 

become the catalyst for significant 

change. 

With an introduction by Alexia’s 

mother, Aphrodite, From Tragedy to Light 

shows the incredibly important work that 

has changed and continues to change 

our complex world for the better. It is a 

beautiful testament to the power photography 

has to shape our lives. 

In Still Here, documentary photographer 

Vivian Rutsch displays masterful 

use of combining lyrical photographs, 

diary entries, illustrations, and text to create 

a non-linear narrative of her journey 

to find answers to the untimely deaths 

of her 17-year-old sister and 35-yearold 

father. The reader follows her as 

she uncovers the social phenomenon of 

unexplained deaths in Germany. In its 

quest for low crime statistics and low 

costs, cases are closed quickly, depriving 

families of justice. Rutsch’s sister’s death 

was labelled a suicide, a determination 

the family disputes, and the case was 

closed two days later. Her father died at 

age 35, but his death was never solved 

and the case remains open. 

But this is not all she uncovered. She 

discovered hidden stories of sexual 

abuse when she read her transgender 

sister’s diary after her death. She writes: 

“It became clear … that she had been 

sexually abused at the age of 13 and 

that the transgender process resulted 

from this abuse. A few months before 

my sister died, our barely four-year-old 

half-sister told me for the first time about 

strange things her father had done to her. 

Her testimony in the video interview was 

deemed insufficient.” 


TAR BEACH 

By Susan Meiselas 

Introduction by Martin Scorsese 

Damiani, 2020 

96 pages | $45 

A PLACE OF OUR OWN 

Iris Hassid 

Schilt Publishing, 2020 

168 pages | $55 

SKATER GIRLS 

By Jenny Sampson 

Daylight, 2020 

96 pages | $45 

Tar Beach. Life on the Rooftops of 

Little Italy brings together photographs 

and memories of life in and 

around the rooftops of Little Italy, New 

York. These are pictures that were made, 

kept, and gathered by various families 

who handed them down from 1940 to 

the early 1970s. Reflections from the 

community offer perspectives of multiple 

generations. We see the images they 

shared and saved. 

Photographer Susan Meiselas, 

along with two of her neighbors, Angel 

Marinaccio and Virginia Dell’Orio, 

collected and curated these vernacular 

photographs to convey the feeling of 

this special place and time in the daily 

lives of Italian immigrants as they made 

their way to becoming part of American 

culture. 

The introduction to Tar Beach is written 

by renowned filmmaker Martin Scorsese 

who grew up on the streets portrayed in 

this collection. He writes: “The roof was 

our escape hatch and it was our sanctuary. 

The endless crowds, the filth and 

the grime, the constant noise, the chaos, 

the claustrophobia, the non-stop motion 

of everything… you would walk up that 

flight of stairs, open the door, and you 

were above it all. You could breathe. You 

could dream. You could be.” 

For six years (2014-2020) Tel Avivbased 

photographer and artist, Iris 

Hassid, followed the day-to-day life 

of four young Palestinian women who 

are citizens of Israel and part of a recent 

surge of young, Arab female students 

attending Tel Aviv University. 

Hassid engaged in spontaneous, 

pleasurable, and often thought-provoking 

conversations while photographing 

Samar (a fresh graduate from film school) 

from Nazareth, her cousin Saja (studying 

psychology) also from Nazareth, 

Majdoleen (studying architecture) from 

Kafr Kanna, and Aya (studying social 

work and gender studies), from Kafr 

Qara. Portions of these conversations are 

highlighted throughout the book. 

The outcome of the project is as 

refreshing, remarkable, and hopeful as 

it is unclear. “I gained their trust as we 

learned more about each other. Bit by bit 

I witnessed more intimate parts of their 

lives and I also met their families back 

home. This long and intimate collaboration 

made me question the place I live in, 

the historical narrative, the identity and 

symbols we inherited on both sides. It has 

revealed a complex and new reality. I 

often think about their futures and about 

the future of this country.” 

In 2017, Jenny Sampson published 

Skaters, featuring her acclaimed 

collection of tintype portraits of male 

and female skateboarders. In this latest 

publication, this American photographer 

based in Berkeley, California chose to 

focus exclusively on female skateboarders. 

Although historically a male-dominated 

sport, there have always been 

girls in the skateboarding landscape. 

By turning her lens on these fearless 

females in skateparks and events all 

over California, Washington and 

Oregon, Sampson hopes Skater Girls 

will increase visibility and celebrate 

these girls and non-binary people, from 

all ages, who have been breaking down 

this gender wall with their skater girl 

power. 

Sampson’s portraits of the women 

skateboarders featured in this book are 

made in a portable darkroom using 

a 160-year-old photographic process 

known as wet plate collodion that 

requires long exposure times while subjects 

remain perfectly still. Jenny explains 

“There is a connection that takes place 

when I photograph them using the slow 

photographic process, wet plate collodion. 

The photographic practice requires 

patience, interaction, and collaboration 

and it mirrors the inclusive landscape in 

which these photographs are made.” 


THE SIEGE OF THE ★ 

US CAPITOL 

PHOTOGRAPHS 

BY MARANIE RAE 

STAAB 

January 6, 2021 

Among those who traveled 

to Washington, DC, 

for what would become 

a deadly insurrection 

at the US Capitol on 

January 6, was Tim Davis 

of Springfield, Oregon. 

A regular at rallies in 

Oregon, Davis was also 

part of the group that 

stormed the Oregon State 

Capitol on December 21, 

2020. Here Tim Davis 

stands atop a balcony 

railing at the US Capitol 

building in Washington, 

DC. 



The siege of the US Capitol on January 

6, 2021 will go down in history on 

par with events such as Pearl Harbor 

and 9/11. Not nearly the number of 

deaths as either of these two events, 

but the historical significance of the 

siege cannot be overstated. 

For four years culminating in the siege, 

the core values of liberal democracy in the 

world’s first democracy were under assault. 

While many breathed a sigh of relief when 

Joe Biden was confirmed as President Elect 

within a week of the election, the worst 

nightmare was only beginning. “Stop the 

Steal” was the new battle cry as President 

Trump, his attorney Rudy Giuliani, and 

millions of followers were obsessed with a 

great lie fabricated by Trump that he actually 

won and the election was stolen. 

His efforts to strong arm the attorney general 

of Georgia and voting officials across 

the nation to find fraudulent votes failed 

repeatedly. But a crazed mob of followers 

fueled by QAnon conspiracy theories and 

extreme right groups such as the Proud 

Boys and the Oath Keepers, were intent on 

derailing the democratic process of confirming 

the Electoral College results presided 

over by Vice President Mike Pence. 

At a rally early in the day at the Ellipse, 

just south of the White House, Trump 

implored his followers that they needed 

to “fight like hell” or they won’t have a 

country. The mob then proceeded to march 

to the US Capitol, tear down barricades, 

break through windows, spray officers with 

chemical agents, kill one officer and badly 

injure many others, and defile Senate and 

House chambers while threatening to find 

and kill Mike Pence and House Speaker 

Nancy Pelosi. 

ZEKE is very fortunate that photographer 

Maranie Rae Staab—equipped with body 

armor, a military-grade gas mask, and her 

cameras—provided ZEKE with these seven 

stunning images that will become part of the 

historical record of what happened in the 

people’s house on January 6. 

Photo by Maranie Rae Staab 

Trump loyalists pushed through metal 

barricades and squared off against US 

Capitol Police officers; for several moments 

chaos and the possibility of a stampede 

was a threat to all. Ultimately, officers were 

outnumbered and overtaken. 




For weeks leading up to January 6, 2021 

there were indications and clear signals that 

violence was a credible threat. 

This threat became reality when the 

President encouraged his supporters to go 

to the Capitol and “defend the Constitution” 

while condemning “weakness” and promising 

to “never concede the election”. 




While the crowd was mostly men, a significant 

number of women participated on January 

6, 2021. Groups like Women for America 

and Women for Trump encouraged members 

to travel to Washington and some formed 

caravans of cars to make the road trip. 




The fringe online conspiracy movement known 

as QAnon has emerged as a common thread 

among men and women from around the country 

arrested for their participation in the mob violence 

on January 6, 2021. 

Though the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure 

Security Agency called the 2020 election the 

“most secure” in US history, QAnon helped sow 

seeds of doubt and outrage among supporters of 

Donald Trump. 





After being encouraged by the [now 

former] President, thousands of Trump 

loyalists marched to the Capitol Building 

where inside lawmakers were working to 

certify Joe Biden as winner of the 2020 

Presidential Election. 




First suggested in whispers, it is now 

widely acknowledged that the siege on 

the US Capitol Building was an attack on 

American democracy, an attempted coup 

and a failed insurrection. 


CONTRIBUTORS 

Md Sazzadul Alam is a freelance photographer 

based in Dhaka, Bangladesh. He wants to 

use the photography medium to show his viewers 

the struggles of the people who can’t express 

their feelings and challenges. He learned the 

basics of photography all by himself. He has 

completed some photography workshops conducted 

by renowned photographers. Recently, he 

joined the Open School of Photography to learn 

more about Documentary Photography. 

Barbara Ayotte is the editor of ZEKE 

magazine and the Communications Director 

of the Social Documentary Network. She 

has served as a senior strategic communications 

strategist, writer and activist for leading 

global health, human rights and media 

nonprofit organizations, including the Nobel 

Peace Prize- winning Physicians for Human 

Rights and International Campaign to Ban 

Landmines. 

Michelle Bogre, the former Chair of the 

Photography Department and now a Professor 

Emerita, Parsons School of Design, is a copyright 

lawyer, documentary photographer and author 

of four books. Photography As Activism: Images 

for Social Change; Photography 4.0: A Teaching 

Guide for the 21st Century; Documentary 

Photography Reconsidered: Theory, History 

and Practice; and The Routledge Companion 

to Copyright and Creativity in the 21st Century. 

Her writing revolves around the intersection of 

memory and history and how the documentary 

photograph will function in the 21st century. She 

regularly lectures about copyright and photography. 

Turjoy Chowdhury is an independent 

documentary photojournalist and multimedia 

artist from Dhaka, Bangladesh. He works internationally, 

mostly on humanitarian issues and 

crises. His work has been exhibited globally 

and published in National Geographic, The 

Guardian, The Sunday Times, The Wall Street 

Journal, The Huffington Post, BBC, CNN, 

and Al Jazeera, among others. He has also 

received several awards and honors, including 

2018 UNICEF Photo of the Year (2nd Prize), 

Joop Swart Masterclass nomination, and 

Invisible Photographer Asia award finalist. 

Caterina Clerici is an Italian freelance 

journalist and producer based in New 

York. She was awarded three Innovation 

in Development Reporting Grants from the 

European Journalism Centre for her multimedia 

work in Haiti, Ghana and Rwanda, 

published in TIME, The Guardian, Al Jazeera 

English and Marie Claire, among others. 

She worked as a freelance photo editor and 

producer for VR at TIME, and as an executive 

video producer at Blink.la. 


Daniela Cohen is a non-fiction writer of 

South African origin whose stories focus on 

themes of division and connection, displacement 

and belonging, giving a window into 

worlds that may otherwise remain unseen. 

Her work has been published in the Canadian 

Immigrant, The Source Newspaper and the 

African blog, and is upcoming in Living 

Hyphen. Currently based in Vancouver, 

Canada, Daniela is working on a memoir 

exploring the question of whether a long-lost 

home can ever be refound. 

Saud A Faisal developed his passion for 

photography at an early age, and completed 

his Diploma in Black & White Photography 

from Alliance Française de Dhaka in 1996. 

During his extensive endeavors in photography, 

Faisal has received recognitions from 

various national and international arenas. 

He has organized and served in different 

capacities in a wide range of exhibitions and 

workshops. His work has been exhibited and 

published in countries worldwide. Faisal identifies 

as a photo activist, as he has pioneered 

many notable photographic platforms in 

Bangladesh. 

Marissa Fiorucci is a freelance photographer 

in Boston, MA. She fell in love with 

photography while working in biotech. 

After courses at the New England School of 

Photography, she became the studio manager 

for portrait photographer, Mark Ostow, and 

worked on major projects including a series 

of portraits of the Obama Cabinet for Politico. 

In 2018, she completed a Magnum Intensive 

Documentary Photography Course at the 

London College of Communication. She specializes 

in corporate portraits and events, but 

remains passionate about documentary. 

Sarika Gulati has supported development 

organizations at both the grassroots and 

international level in their communication, 

advocacy, and fundraising initiatives since 

2007. This has involved issues such as climate 

change, education, child safety, disasters 

and humanitarian response, housing/shelter, 

livelihoods, the refugee crisis, and healthcare. 

As a documentary photographer, she ensures 

that her photographs reflect respect for human 

life while capturing sensitive issues. In addition 

to personal photography projects, she leads 

workshops and teaches photography to NGO 

workers and children. 

Khaled Hasan began working as a photographer 

in 2001, and has since worked 

as a freelance photojournalist for several 

magazines in Bangladesh and other countries. 

His work has been published by the 

New York Times, Sunday Times Magazine, 

National Geographic Society, The Guardian, 

Telegraph, and others. Hasan’s documentary 

project ‘Living Stone’ has won numerous 

international awards. As an indigenous photographer, 

he tells narratives of the land that 

shaped him. He believes a story never ends; 

it continues to develop, fades or becomes part 

of history, but may still be documented through 

photography. 

Mohammad Rakibul Hasan is a 

documentary photographer, filmmaker and 

visual artist based in Dhaka, Bangladesh. 

Hasan pursued a Postgraduate Diploma 

in Photojournalism from Ateneo de Manila 

University, graduated in Film & Video 

Production from UBS Film School at the 

University of Sydney, and is currently pursuing 

an MA in Photography at Falmouth University. 

He has been nominated for many international 

awards and has won photographic competitions 

worldwide including the Lucie Award, 

Human Rights Press Award, and Allard Prize. 

He is represented by Redux Pictures, and 

ZUMA Press, U.S. 

Md. Zobayer Hossain Joati is a freelance 

photographer as well as a photography student 

from Dhaka, Bangladesh. He completed 

his Bachelor of Science degree in Electronics 

and Telecommunication Engineering from 

Chittagong University of Engineering and 

Technology. He is currently pursuing a twoyear 

Professional Photography program 

through Counter Foto. 

Richard Juilliart has been a freelance 

photographer since 1999, and is based in 

Switzerland. He is a four-time official Olympic 

Games photographer, and has worked for several 

NGOs and other private institutions. His 

work includes depicting the daily life of street 

children in Cambodia, amputees in Bosnia, 

the tsunami in Indonesia, and the earthquake 

in Haiti. His work has appeared in National 

Geographic, Le Figaro, USA Today, Huffington 

Post, Elle, Forbes, Aljazeera, BBC, CBS, CNN, 

and many other publications. 

Dana Melaver is a writer and artist. Her 

work is rooted in the belief that everything is 

interesting, and often acts as a bridge among 

art, thought, and the sciences. Dana’s most 

recent projects include an experimental documentary 

about sustainable aquaculture, and 

an ode to the mischievous qualities of light. 

Fabeha Monir is a Dhaka-based visual 

journalist who uses still images, text and 

video to provide multi-faceted storytelling for 

editorial and non-profit clients. Her editorial 

clients include The New York Times, The 

Guardian, Stern Magazine, Der Spiegel,

Elle Magazine, The Telegraph UK, NRC, 

Al Jazeera News, BBC News, Nido, Zeit 

magazine, The Chronicle of Philanthropy, The 

Sydney Morning Herald, Devex, France 24, 

The New Humanitarian, Pacific News, Icarus 

Complex Magazine, The Chronicle for Higher 

Education, Zora Magazine, and others. 

Glenn Ruga is the Executive Editor of 

ZEKE magazine and founder and director 

of the Social Documentary Network (SDN). 

From 2010-2013, he was the Executive 

Director of the Photographic Resource 

Center. From 1995-2007 he was the 

Director, and then President, of the Center 

for Balkan Development. Ruga is also 

the owner and creative director of Visual 

Communications, a graphic design firm 

located in Concord, MA. 

Moniruzzaman Sazal has been involved 

in photography since childhood. He aims 

to raise awareness through photography by 

highlighting different problems in society and 

the afflictions of people. He has been working 

on different projects including climate change 

issues and their impact on people’s lives, natural 

diversity, discrimination in society, cultural 

diversity, and unity of religion. He has received 

several local and international acknowledgments 

for his work. His hope is to serve both his 

country and the world through his craft. 

Kolodi Senong is completing a PhD 

at the University of the Witwatersrand in 

Johannesburg, South Africa while working 

on his dissertation Darkness after Light: the 

Visual Portrait of Lefifi Tladi. Senong is a 

practicing artist and teacher who delves in 

art writing as well. 

Nazmul Hassan Shanji enjoyed taking 

photos from school age, but it only became 

his passion later, through family inspiration. 

Five months after starting to pursue photography, 

he has completed his first course 

on Photojournalism in Idea Store, London. 

His main goal is to create signature photos 

showcasing his personal style, knowledge, 

and views. He is currently the Co-Founder and 

Managing Partner of L’Fotto, and working as 

a documentary, commercial and nature photographer 

in various sectors of photography 

around the globe. 

Maranie Rae Staab is an independent 

photographer, videographer and journalist. 

Her work focuses on human rights and social 

justice issues, displacement, social movements, 

and the impact of conflict on individuals and 

society. Maranie strives for visual intimacy, 

to establish the trust necessary to get close 

to people and to then share their experience 

with others. A 2020 Pulitzer Center Reporting 

Fellowship recipient, Maranie is an alumni of 

the Eddie Adams Workshop, and winner of 

the 2019 Best of Photojournalism Emerging 

Vision prize, among others. 

Frank Ward is a retired professor of visual 

art at Holyoke Community College, Holyoke, 

MA. In 2016, Ward received a National 

Endowment for the Humanities grant and a 

Mass Humanities grant for his photography 

of Holyoke, MA. In 2012, he went to Central 

Asia as the Cultural Envoy in Photography 

for the US Department of State. In 2011, he 

was awarded an Artist Fellowship from the 

Massachusetts Cultural Council for his photography 

in the former Soviet Union. He has also 

received support for his work in the former 

Yugoslavia, Tibet and India. He is represented 

by Photo Eye Gallery in Santa Fe, NM. 

Interview with Shahidul Alam 

Continued from page 55. 

MB: You have shifted how you tell 

stories. I remember seeing “Kalpana’s 

Warriors” 3 at the Autograph gallery in 

London. It was such a visceral experience. 

Have you abandoned linear 

storytelling? 

SA: My shift began years ago. When I 

tried to show my seminal work, no gallery 

was interested because it was too hot to 

handle. An important part of that work 

was the juxtaposition of pictures of the 

wedding of a very powerful minister, taking 

place at a time when the country was 

recovering from the floods. I juxtaposed 

those images and that was too contentious. 

But then the work was reviewed 

in a magazine owned by the wife of 

the minister I was critiquing. The review 

talked about the artistry of my work -- the 

composition, the lyricism, the quality of 

my prints, but it never mentioned politics. 

I decided then that I was not going to 

allow my politics to ever be separated 

from my work. In 2010, I was thinking 

about how to show what we called crossfires, 

extrajudicial government killings, 

which had become so rampant and there 

didn’t seem any way to stop it. I thought 

I needed to put together an exhibition. 

After a lot of research by our team, and 

talking to the families of the deceased, I 

decided to create imagery about what the 

person might have seen in the last dying 

moments of his life. Since the killings had 

all taken place at night I decided that all 

the photographs would be taken at night 

using ambient light. When I spoke to 

the family members they all remembered 

having torches (flashlights) shone on their 

faces. So I decided to light my pictures 

using torchlight. This was the first time 

that I considered the type of lighting, the 

environment, the situation, as elements 

that related to the politics of the events. 

So now I produce work based on maximum 

impact and getting my story across 

most powerfully. If I feel at a particular 

point that classical linear documentary 

black and white photography is the way, 

I will to return to that. 

MB: Your more recent work seems to be 

designed to confront the viewer, to make 

them uncomfortable with firmly held 

biases. Is that a conscious motive? 

SA: I think so. In our old space, we had 

a sign that said: “If you’re not making 

certain people uncomfortable with your 

work, you’re probably doing something 

wrong.” 

Notes 

1 General Hussain Muhammad Ershad was president 

of Bangladesh from 1963 to 1990 when 

he was forced to resign following a popular 

pro-democracy uprising. Most consider his 

reign to have been a military dictatorship. 

2 Alam, arrested August 5, 2018 for supporting 

a student-led protest against unsafe streets in 

Bangladesh, was tortured, denied bail and 

held for more than 100 days. After massive 

international support he was released. The 

charges against him remain. 

3 For this exhibition, Alam printed activist’s 

portraits on straw mats, and hung them in a 

circle from the ceiling, lit primarily by hanging 

candles, to evoke the atmosphere from which 

Kalpana Chakma was abducted. 


A Home for Global Documentary 

Photo by Daniel Hoffman from “Samba and Punks in Sao Paulo, Brazil' on SDN. 

SDN & ZEKE Magazine 

Lori Grinker 

SDN Website: A web portal for 

documentary photographers to 

create online galleries and make 

them available to anyone with an 

internet connection. Since 2008, 

we have presented more than 

3,300 documentary stories from 

all parts of the world. 

ZEKE Magazine: This bi-annual 

publication allows us to present 

visual stories in print form with indepth 

writing about the themes 

of the photography projects. 

Documentary Matters: 

A new place for photographers to 

meet with others involved with 

or interested in documentary 

photography and discuss ongoing 

or completed projects. 

SDN Education: This is a new 

and popular program offering 

online classes in documentary 

practice and technology. 

SDN Reviews: This is our newest 

program teaming up with leaders 

in the editorial, publishing, and 

fine art industries to review work 

of documentary photographers, 

offer constructive criticism, and 

to keep an eye out for new and 

talented photographers. 

ZEKE Award for Documentary 

Photography: A new award 

program juried by a distinguished 

panel of international media 

professionals. Award winners are 

exhibited at Photoville in Brooklyn 

and featured in ZEKE. 

Join! 

www.socialdocumentary.net 

Subscribe! 

www.zekemagazine.com 


THE MAGAZINE 

OF GLOBAL 

DOCUMENTARY 

Social Documentary Network and ZEKE 

are now projects of Reportage International, 

Inc., a nonprofit organization 

founded in Massachusetts in 2020. 


The Price of Gold is a product of years of observation and 

investigation of problems caused by modern mechanized 

gold mining in a rainforest area of the Colombian Pacific, 

where environmental degradation and cultural upheaval 

have been the results. With many photographs, drawings 

and narrative texts, the authors present a description of the 

rainforest and its rivers, the traditional lives of indigenous 

and Afro-Colombian communities, ancestral techniques 

of artisanal mining, the environmental degradation and 

cultural and social damage being done by the machines, 

and voices of opposition to these disasters. 

“Complete with stunning images, … a truly beautiful book about 

the tragic impact of mechanized mining on indigenous and 

Afro-Colombian communities in El Chocó...” 

—Steve Striffler, U. of Massachusetts, Boston 

“…this lavishly illustrated book with its intricate drawings, 

eloquent photographs and useful maps shows us the human 

faces of this transformation and the challenges of resistance.” 

—June Carolyn Erlick, editor-in-chief, ReVista, Harvard University. 

Available as ebooks for only $3.00 at: 

(ebook readers/lectores ebook) 

https://www.elchocomining.net/ebooks 

(Kindle) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08B1VSYKK 

(Kindle, español) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08B3XQHDN 



SPRING 

THE MAGAZINE OF GLOBAL DOCUMENTARY 


Donors to the 2020 Campaign 

SDN and ZEKE magazine would like to thank the following 

donors to the 2020 Campaign. Support from private 

individuals is essential for ZEKE to continue publishing. If 

you would like to support the campaign, please visit 

www.socialdocumentary.net/cms/support 

Benefactor 

Carol Allen-Storey 

Bill and Isa Aron 

Barbara Ayotte 

Robert and Judy Ayotte 

Edward Boches 

Rudi Dundas 

Jamey Stillings 

Sustainer 

Julien Ayotte 

Margo Cooper 

Jennifer Fish 

Mary Ellen Keough 

Vicki Kessler 

Thomas Kovach 

Susan Mazer 

Joseph Smooke 

David Spink 

Amy Yenkin 

Supporter 

Anonymous 

Bill Aguado 

Cathi Baglin 

Dan Connell 

Maria Cortes 

Lee Cott 

Greig Cranna 

Catherine Edelman 

Marissa Fiorucci 

Connie Frisbee Houde 

Morrie Gasser 

Vivien Goldman 

Ivy Gordon 

David Greenfield 

Mary Hamill 

Vanessa Harper 

Michael Kane 

Cynthia Katz 

Lance Larson 


France Leclerc 

Rusty Leffel 

William Livingston 

Joan Lobis Brown 

Mitzi Mayer 

James Miller 

Jorge Monteagudo 

Anthony Morganti 

Vicki Nesper 

Charlotte Niel 

Fredrick Orkin 

John Parisi 

Peter Perez 

Betty Press 

James Pyrzynski 

John Rae 

Susan Reynolds 

Francine Sherman 

Katalin Simon 

Elin Spring 

Sylvia Stagg-Giuliano 

Leslie Tuttle 

Robert Wilson 

Caren Winnall 

Bob & Janet Winston 

Donor 

Anonymous 

Liane Brandon 

Laure-Anne Brown 

Irene Fertik 

Florence Gallez 

Margaret Kauffmann 

Diana Medici 

Cynthia Murray 

Jay Phyfer 

Mark Tuschman 

James Whitaker 

John Willis 

Burroughs York 

Michele Zousmer 

2021 Vol. 7/No. 1 

$12 US 

ZEKE is published by Social Documentary Network (SDN), an 

organization promoting visual storytelling about global themes. 

Started as a website in 2008, today SDN works with thousands 

of photographers around the world to tell important stories 

through the visual medium of photography and multimedia. 

Since 2008, SDN has featured more than 3,500 exhibits on its 

website and has had gallery exhibitions in major cities around 

the world. All the work featured in ZEKE first appeared on the 

SDN website, www.socialdocumentary.net. 


Executive Editor: Glenn Ruga 

Editor: Barbara Ayotte 

Guest Editor: Mohammad Rakibul 

Hasan 

Book Review Editor: Michelle 

Bogre 

Reportage International, 

Inc. Board of Directors 

Glenn Ruga, President 

Eric Luden, Treasurer 

Barbara Ayotte, Secretary 

SDN and ZEKE magazine 

are projects of Reportage 

International, Inc., a nonprofit 

organization founded in 2020. 

Subscribe today 

and receive the 

print edition in 

your mailbox. 

To Subscribe: 


Advertising Inquiries: 

glenn@socialdocumentary.net 

61 Potter Street 

Concord, MA 01742 USA 

617-417-5981 

info@socialdocumentary.net 

www.socialdocumentary.net 


socdoctweets 

socialdocumentarynet 

socialdocumentary 

SDN Advisory Committee 

Lori Grinker, New York, NY 

Independent Photographer and 

Educator 

Catherine Karnow, 

San Francisco, CA 

Independent Photographer and 

Educator 

Ed Kashi, Montclair, NJ 

Member of VII photo agency 

Photographer, Filmmaker, 

Educator 

Eric Luden, Cambridge, MA 

Founder/Owner 

Digital Silver Imaging 

Lekgetho Makola, Johanesburg, 

South Africa 

Head, Market Photo Workshop 

Molly Roberts, Washington, DC 

Independent Visual Storyteller and 

Producer 

Jeffrey D. Smith, New York NY 

Director, Contact Press Images 

Jamey Stillings, Sante Fe, NM 

Independent Photographer 

Steve Walker, Danbury, CT 

Consultant and Educator 

Frank Ward, Williamsburg, MA 

Photographer and Educator 

Amy Yenkin, New York, NY 

Independent Producer and Editor 

ZEKE is published twice a year by 

Social Documentary Network 

Copyright © 2021 

Social Documentary Network 

ISSN 2381-1390 

ZEKE does not accept unsolicited 

submissions. To be considered for 

publication in ZEKE, submit your 

work to the SDN website either as 

a standard exhibit or a submission 

to a Call for Entries.

ABOUT THE COVER 

Born Refugee 

A new way of looking at the 

refugee crisis 

The baby, not even three weeks 

old, is sound asleep, arms 

stretched out and colorful garments 

lifting up the head like 

a pillow, covering the legs. Rays of light 

come in and shine onto the baby’s face and 

body, we don’t know where from — will 

they wake him or her up? A red blanket, the 

backdrop of the photograph on the cover of 

this issue of ZEKE, allows us to imagine this 

could be any baby in the world. It could be 

the photo one takes of their own child. It’s 

the photograph of a new life. 

Throughout his career as a photojournalist, 

Bangladeshi photographer Turjoy 

Chowdhury has always been interested in 

documenting humanitarian issues, climate 

change, and history of conflicts, and he’s constantly 

been looking for smaller human stories 

that could speak for larger geopolitical issues. 

In 2017, when the first massive influx of 

Rohingya refugees arrived from Myanmar 

into Bangladesh, Chowdhury began visiting 

the camps in Cox’s Bazar regularly to cover 

the crisis. One day, while he was roaming 

around inside the refugee camp, he suddenly 

heard a baby crying in one of the shacks used 

by the refugees as temporary shelters. He 

entered and cautiously introduced himself to 

the newborn baby girl and her mother, who 

told him their story. 

She had crossed the border pregnant 

with her baby, and had given birth to her 

on Bangladesh soil. However, because of the 

country’s law, the baby would not be considered 

a citizen unless the parents were born in 

Bangladesh too. As Rohingyas, though, the baby 

and her mother would by law not be considered 

citizens in Myanmar either — a country 

they had fled like hundreds of thousands others, 

in one of the biggest displacements of populations 

the world has witnessed in recent years. 

After Chowdhury asked her for a photograph, 

the mother uncovered the baby, 

until that moment wrapped tightly in a 

blanket. It was a blanket given to the family 

by the refugee camp as relief aid. As soon as 

Chowdhury’s shutter went off, he realized 

that the colorful blanket was meant to be the 

backdrop of the whole series: a comforting, 

apparently neutral object, and yet already a 

social marker, defining his identity in lieu of a 

country or a home. 

With that first photo, Chowdhury’s 

project “Born Refugee” came to light: a new 

way of looking at the refugee crisis through 

portraits of those who were the purest, more 

Turjoy Chowdhury 

innocent embodiment of its contradictions: 

its stateless children. 

In the following months, Chowdhury met 

with dozens of mothers and spent hours with 

them, listening as they recounted stories of their 

traumatic escapes from Myanmar looking for a 

better future for the babies in their wombs. 

Once, after one particularly long conversation, 

he left her shack only to find a few 

women in line holding their babies in their 

arms, waiting for him to photograph them. 

They knew there was someone who wanted 

to hear their voice and portray them showing 

their biggest strength, their pride: their connection 

to the future — a future that hopefully 

is still to be written. 

—Caterina Clerici 


SUBSCRIBE 

WWW.ZEKEMAGAZINE.COM 


documentary 

SDNsocial 

network 

PUBLISHER OF ZEKE MAGAZINE 

61 Potter Street 

Concord, MA 01742 

USA 

Subscribe today 

and receive the 

print edition in 

your mailbox. 

During these difficult times, 

support documentary 

photographers. 

New Instant Image Archiving 

DSI Digital Silver Prints ® 

Color Pigment Prints 

Mounting & Matting Services 

Custom Framing 

Scanning & Retouching 

Shipping World Wide 

An armed soldier stands guard behind 

a fence outside of the U.S. Capitol. 

©Michael A McCoy 2021 

michaelamccoyphotography.com 

@michaelamccoyphotography 

digitalsilverimaging.com • 617 489-0035

ZEKE Magazine: Spring 2021

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?