Shahidul Alam (born 1955) is a Bangladeshi media institution builder, a photojournalist, public speaker, storyteller, writer, blogger, curator, and educationist.
Alam was awarded an Honorary Fellowship of the Royal Photographic Society in 2001.[3] In 2014, he was awarded the Shilpakala Padak by the President of Bangladesh and in 2018 the Humanitarian Award from the Lucie Awards. He was a Time magazine persons of the year in 2018. He was the CASE Humanitarian of the Year in 2021. He is an Advisory Board Member of National Geographic Society and a National Geographic Explorer at Large. In 2022, he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by the University of Arts in London, which he returned in 2024 because of the university's complicity in Israel's occupation of Palestine.[4][5]
In his childhood, he used to float through Dhaka's congested arteries atop his slight fold-up bicycle.[8] He studied at the boarding school Jhenaidah Cadet College.
Alam took his undergraduate education in the University of Liverpool. During his time in Liverpool, he made a habit of walking in the streets in his lungi, a traditional South Asian garment. In his college year, he was introduced to activism through his involvement with the Socialist Workers Party.[8] He graduated from the university in 1976 by earning his BSc in biochemistry and genetics.[9]
Alam relocated to London for his Doctor of Philosophy study at Bedford College, University of London. Alam started to take an interest in photography during his time in London. At Bedford, he also worked as a research chemist to invent alternative printing processes for photographs.[10] In 1983, he won the Harvey Harris Trophy from London Arts Council for a photograph that he took. This boosted his confidence in pursuing a career in photography.[9][8] In the same year, he received his DPhil in organic chemistry.[11]
In 1989, he set up Drik Picture Library and in 1998, Pathshala South Asian Institute of Photography (later Pathshala South Asian Media Institute), in Dhaka.[12][13] Pathshala "has trained hundreds of photographers".[14][13] Alam founded the Chobi Mela International Photography Festival in 1999, the most important and prestigious photography festival in Asia, of which he remains a director.[13][15] Alam set up the South Asian Media Academy.[12]
Alam has covered news events including natural disasters, governmental upheavals, the deaths of garment factory workers, human rights abuses, Bangladeshi government and military's repression and the "disappearances" of political opponents.[1][14]
Crossfire is a series of photographs taken by Alam. The exhibition was curated by Jorge Villacorta, a Peruvian art critic, curator, and colleague of Alam. The exhibition was completed in 2010 and displayed at Drik Gallery in Dhaka.[17][18] The photographs show locations and objects where extrajudicial killings happened because of Bangladesh's Rapid Action Battalion (RAB).[18] Human Rights Watch has called RAB a "death squad" because of these reported killings.[19] RAB was established in 2004 as a paramilitary force to combat gangsters and thugs in the streets, but in late 2007, the battalion was accused of over 350 extrajudicial killings and the torturing of hundreds more.[20]
State repression
Crossfire
The closure by RAB and the local police of the 2010 exhibition titled Crossfire on the topic of extrajudicial killings sparked nationwide protests.[21][12][22][23][14]Drik Gallery which housed the exhibition was barricaded before its opening on grounds that the photographs would "create anarchy".[24] After Drik's lawyers served legal notice on the government, the police barricade was removed. The response of the court and subsequent events enabled Drik to open the exhibition for public viewing on 31 March.[25]
2018 Bangladesh road safety protests
On 5 August 2018, David Bergman tweeted that Shahidul Alam had been taken from his home in Dhanmondi by 30 to 35 plainclothes police officers. This happened shortly after Alam, in a live interview with Al Jazeera, criticized the government's violent response to the 2018 Bangladesh road safety protests which he had been documenting via live videos on Facebook.[26][14][27][28] Alam was believed to have been arrested for saying that the protests "stemmed from anger about widespread government corruption, and not just the bus accident that initially sparked them."[29]
Shahidul Alam was shown arrested by the Dhaka Metropolitan Police the next day.[28] He was charged under Section 57 of the Information and Communication Technology Act and was remanded for seven days. Alam told the court that he had been tortured while in police custody.[12][13] The Supreme Court halted the seven-day remand on 7 August, and after observing his physical condition ordered authorities to admit him to a hospital. Alam was taken to a hospital on 8 August at 9 am. However, he was taken back to the office of the Detective Branch of police again at 2 pm on the same day. Alam's lawyer Sara Hossain said the case would not stand in court.[30]
In Dhaka, on October 16, around 100 photographers formed a human chain at the base of Raju Memorial Sculpture under the banner of "Shahidul Alam Er Muktir Dabitey Alokchitribrindo".[47]
On the other hand, Sajeeb Wazed, the son of Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, questioned those defending and demanding freedom of Alam in a controversial Facebook post.[48][49]
Alam has recounted some of his experiences in his reply to Arundhati Roy's open letter addressed to him while he was in jail.[50][51]
After 107 days of imprisonment, Alam was granted bail by Bangladesh High Court and released on 20 November 2018.[52]
He has challenged the legality of the Section 57 of the ICT act with the Bangladesh Supreme Court after his challenge was rejected by Bangladesh High Court.[53][54]
Arundhati Roy at Chobi Mela X
On March 4, 2019, the Dhaka Metropolitan Police revoked an invitation for Arundhati Roy's talk scheduled as part of the 10th edition of Chobi Mela International Photography Festival. After 24 hours of uncertainty, the organizers of Chobi Mela finally held her talk with Shahidul Alam at an alternative venue.[55][56][57]
Biennale für aktuelle Fotografie 2024
On 21 November 2023, authorities from the German cities of Mannheim, Ludwigshafen, and Heidelberg canceled the 10th edition of the Biennale für aktuelle Fotografie taking place in March 2024. Alam had criticised the genocidal attacks on the Palestinians in Gaza by the Israeli project on his social media accounts, which was deemed "anti-semitic".[58] In agreement with longstanding main sponsor BASF, the Biennale's board and three cities' mayors of cultural affairs decided that Alam's social media activity since 7 October 2023 meant that the Biennale could not go ahead.[59]
Alam stated that the Biennale had "incorrectly equated" his social media activity "to antisemitism". "We feel that the failure to draw a distinction between criticism of a government and of a peoples, is irresponsible and damaging to the honesty of public discourse," he said.[60] Alam told Al Jazeera: "I am an anti-Zionist which means I am against colonialism, settler colonialism, against racism, against apartheid and genocide. I am not an anti-Semite, and it's most unfortunate that Germany chooses to conflate the two, [as this] serves and furthers the white supremacist agenda."[61]
Publications
Author
Shahidul Alam: Singed but not burned. Edited by Ina Puri. Kolkota: Emami Art, 2023.[62]
Ways of Life. Dhaka, Bangladesh: Drik Picture Library, 2014. Edited by Alam. ISBN9789843383099. With an introduction by Rubana Huq.
Under the Banyan Tree. Dhaka, Bangladesh: Pathshala, South Asian Media Academy, 2011. Edited by Alam. ISBN9789843334442.
Blink: 100 photographers, 10 curators, 10 writers. New York: Phaidon, 2002. 2004, ISBN978-0714844589. Alam was a joint curator.
Published works
"What One Person Can Do: The Amazing Life of Abdul Sattar Edhi". Written by Richard Covington, photographs by Shahidul Alam. In: What Matters: The World's Preeminent Photojournalists and Thinkers Depict Essential Issues of Our Time (2008) edited by David Elliot Cohen.
"Humanitarian to a Nation: Abdul Sattar Edhi". Published in: Aramco World (2004). Written by Richard Covington, photographs by Shahidul Alam.
Exhibitions
Own work
2024. Singed but not burned. Sakshi Art Gallery, Mumbai, 25 April – 22 May 2024.
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