Pathshala Updates

Alexia Awards

Source: David Sutherland

Saiful Huq Omi a finalist: Saiful Huq Omi, born in Bangladesh in 1980, graduated from Pathshala South Asian Institute of Photography and became a photographer in 2005. He is represented by Polaris Images. His works have been published in Newsweek, Foto File USA, New Internationalist, Time Magazine, The Guardian, and Asian Photography and in the Arab News. He has lectured and presented his works at The London School of Economics, Rochester Institute of Technology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University, and Columbia University and in many other universities.

Khaled Hasan wins student award for excellence: Khaled Hasan, a student at Pathshala South Asian Institute of Photography in Bangladesh, graduating in 2009. Khaled was a recipient of the National Geographic All Roads Award in 2008. Each Award of Excellence winner receives a $1600 scholarship that pays part of tuition, fees and living expenses to study photojournalism in London in the fall semester at Syracuse University in London and a $500 cash grant to help produce their proposed stories.

Wahid Adnan finalist in Smithsonian Magazine Photo Contest

Yet another photo of women on trains! This time by Wahid Adnan

Nice to see our photographers winning, but producing formula pictures is a worrying trend. SA.

Double Page Spread in Guardian by Akash

Double Page Spread in Guardian (UK) on 13th February 2009. GMB Akash

Student Presentation:

The stolen forest of Madhupur: The Mandi people of Madhupur are rapidly loosing their livelihood and home. The rate of deforestation is high and poorly paid forestry officials are turning a blind eye to the destruction. If something doesn't change, the reserve is doomed. Photo: Fredrik Bjerknes

From "a portrait series on the acid survivors of bangladesh" ..? Photo: Anette Schive

The Oslo University College (OUC) and Pathshala-South Asian Institute of Photography have been running a collaborative teaching programme since January 2003. A group of fourteen students from OUC arrived in Bangladesh to collaborate with twelve 2nd year students from Pathshala and one student from the Danish School of Journalism. The programme started with a four-day workshop conducted by Philip Blenkinsop of NOOR Agency, After the workshop, students worked in the field on their personal projects from January 14 to February 7, 2009. They will be presenting their work today and tomorrow, the 13th and 14th of February from 3.00pm – 8.00pm at Goethe Institute, House # 10, Road # 9, Dhanmondi R/A, Dhaka-1209.

In the Nijhum Island thousands of deer live in the forest. The forest are surrounding by boundless pastureland and they are satisfied their hunger by eating grass, twigs and tendrils. Deer are prohibited to hunt and they are now an important part of the ecology of this island. Photo: Kaoser Ahmed

With incense Rijia fakirani (65) (Guru Ma) a lalon shadhok (devotee) and wife of Abdur Rob fakir (80) is showing her devotion to her husband as her `shaiji’(preceptor)at pakkola village in kushtia. Photo: Taslima Akhter Lima

You are cordially invited to the presentation.

Yours sincerely,

Joseph Rozario

Administrative Manager-

Pathshala-South Asian Institute of Photography

16 Panthapath, Sukrabad, Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Digital Notice Board

Student exhibition:

Morten Krogvold conducted a workshop for Pathshala students and visiting students from Oslo. The show will open at 4:00 pm at Shilpakala Academy on the 11th February 2009.

Adnan

Kirsten

Lima

Palash

Student presentation:

The OUC/Pathshala students who participated in the workshop will be presenting their work at the Goethe Institut on Friday 13th and Saturday 14th February 3-8 p.m

Workshop by Philip Blenkinsop

The celebrated photographer Philip Blenkinsop of Noor Agency is currently conducting a workshop for students of Oslo University College (OUC) and Pathshala. This is the fourth time that Students of OUC led by their teacher Per Anders Rosenkvist are doing their course on international photojournalism at Pathshala. After a short intensive workshop, the students from the two countries team up to produce photo essays in various parts of Bangladesh. This year OUC students will also be participating in Chobi Mela workshops. Another Noor photographer Kadir van Lohuizen will be showing his work Diamond Matters at Chobi Mela V. Thanks to Gary Knight of the agency VII for linking us up with Philip, and to Claudia Hinterseer, the managing director of Noor, for facilitating Kadir’s show.

Footwear of Bangladeshi and Norwegian students outside the classroom of Pathshala where Philip Blenkinsop is conducting a class. © Shahidul Alam/Drik/Majority World

Saiful Huq Omi finalist in 2009 Aftermath Project Grant

Omi’s proposal was to produce a body of work on the Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh. Selected images from Omi’s submitted portfolio (not from the Rohingya project) follow:

Jossna Ara Begum had everything Ð a husband, and some arable land. One night the river swallowed everything Ð the house, the land, and all the belongings. Her husband left home to find work and never came back. Everyday when she looks at her four starving children, Jossna wants to commit suicide. © Saiful Huq Omi

“We are a family of ten members- my parents and eight of our brothers and sisters. Before the attack, I used to work at the graveyard with my father. My father is a caretaker of a government owned graveyard. Though even before the attack, me and my father didn’t earn decent enough, we knew at least we wonÕt starve to death. Now, without me as an earning member, sometimes we do not have enough money to eat three times a day” says Rajib. © Saiful Huq Omi

“Our community does a lot of voluntary work. Hundreds of people come to us for homeopathy treatment. I also had training: I sometimes sit in the dispensary. Helping people in their bad times is the ultimate religion. Is there any better religion than that ?” -says Wadud. © Saiful Huq Omi

GMB Akash wins four prizes in The Visual Cultural Awards

1) Award of Excellence, in Photographic Essay category

At least 10,000 people, including 2,500 women and over 1,000 children, are engaged in stone and sand collection from the Bhollar Ghat on the banks of the Piyain River. At dawn hundreds of barefooted CHILD laborers with spades, strainers and dhoolies (baskets to filter out rocks from the rubble of stones and pebbles) gather at Bolla Ghat. In recent years the rubble is dug out from the river bed (10 to 20 feet below the waterÕs surface) by hydraulic excavators. Even two years ago the laborers used to collect the mixture of stones and pebbles from the same depth (as today) of the river bed with a bucket. A deep breath held for one minute helped them to acquire one basket of stones. Today they earn the same amount of money but with much less effort. A laborer here earns only 50-100 taka per day (1 USD = 70 TAKA) © GMB Akash

2) Award of Excellence in Photographic Story category

A sex worker with her baby. The men who have sired children here only rarely come back behind these curtains. October 2006. © GMB Akash

3) Gold in Photographic Essay category

Jainal works in silver cooking pot factory. He is 11 Years old. He has been working in this silver cooking pot making factory for three years. His work start at 9 am and end at 6pm.for his work he gets 700 taka (10 usd) for a month. His parents are so poor and they can not afford to send him to school. According to the factory owner, the parents do not care for their children. They send their kids to work for money. They even don’t fell sorry for these small kids. And they have five/six children in one family. © GMB Akash

4) the top honour of Visual Maker of the Year

As a result of being awarded Visual Maker of the Year, he will have a solo exhibition at the Charleston Center for Photography in South Carolina, USA starting January 15th, 2009.

The myth of freedom in Western societies

by Lino Hellings

The artist Lino Hellings from Netherlands is going give a lecture on ‘The myth of freedom in Western societies.’ on Tuesday, 25th of November 2008 at Pathshala. The session will start at 6:00pm. Everybody related to Pathshala is invited to the event.

Lino Helling at Asiatic Lounge in Gulshan. © Shahidul Alam/Drik/Majority World

Thanking you all,

Rezaul Karim
Pathshala.

A Short Brief on Lino Hellings:

Lino Hellings has been an artist in public space for 33 years. Public space in Europe has gone through major changes in that timespan. Lino will show examples of her work which will illustrate the changing relation between people and their environments.

Lino has come to Bangladesh and more specified to DRIK to do research about her new plan. The start of a worldwide erroristnetwork. If you go to the website: http://www.errorist.net, you will find her experiences so far.

New work:

Portfolio

Weblog process of the work

Theory:

Projects: and

—————————————————————-

Final Presentation by Pathshala and Bjerkely Students

Dear Tutors and Students,

It is a pleasure to inform you that the Final Presentation of the participating students from Pathshala and Bjerkely will be held on the 22nd and 23rd of November 2008 from 2.00pm to 8.30pm at Alliance Francaise auditorium (1st floor), 26 Mirpur Road, Dhanmondi, Dhaka-1205. Our 2nd year and 3rd year students will not have any classes on next Saturday and Sunday because of this presentation. It is expected that all 2nd and 3rd year students will attend the presentation programme.

We request you to attend this presentation and share your ideas.

Yours sincerely,

Joseph Rozario
Administrative Manager

Pathshala-South Asian Institute of Photography

16 Panthapath, Sukrabad, Dhaka, Bangladesh.