Creating Style

Photographer
Sarker Protick
Talks to
Apurba Jahangir

	courtesy: Sarker Protick

I did my SSC from Assemblies of God School in Dhaka. I wasn't always the first boy but quite often secured the second or third position in class. Education for me was something I did for the sake of my parents.

After my SSC examination, I got admitted to Notre Dame College. Apart from the pressure of my studies, I had nothing to bother about. I soon, got involved with music and started to play the guitar. It was around this time, that with a few music enthusiast friends, we formed a heavy metal band called Onno. When I look back, it was during this phase of my life that I got the taste of freedom!

After completing my HSC, I got admitted to AIUB for a Bachelors degree in Marketing. My passion for photography started from my university days. When I was in third year, I got my first cell phone which had a two mega pixel camera. So I used take a lot of photos with it. During this time I got admitted to Pathshala.

Additionally, my schedule became more hectic, as I took a job at Square pharmaceuticals. So basically I was juggling three things simultaneously, and it got pretty stressful. But then through Pathshala, I got a scholarship from the US Department of State to study New Media and Journalism at the University of Virginia which was a programme designed for the duration of six weeks.

After coming back from there I started a project which lasted for seven months called Rater Dhaka (Dhaka at night). Basically, in this project I focused mainly on the glories of Dhaka city at night instead of day time. Around this time, Pathshala was producing a book for their 12 year anniversary. For which every student who had been a part of Pathshala for the last 12 years, were asked to submit their entries. However, only 15 of them were selected and surprisingly enough, I was one of them. I was completely blown away with the news because I never thought that from all the good photographers, they would choose me. After that I went to England with a scholarship to learn Documentary Photography from the University of Gloucestershire which was for the duration of one month.

Right now, I am working on two projects, one of which is about the Padma river and Padma village (padma nodi ebong padmar gram) and the other is about my grandparents (dada ebong dida). Out of these the second one will be displayed in the next Chobi Mela. Apart from that I am also doing some commercial work. In the future I am going to work with the curator of the Dhaka Art Center and am planning to join Pathshala as a Faculty member.

Currently, Bangladesh is doing quite well in the field of Photography. Other countries are now appreciating our photographers and photographs taken by them. They are recommending us to other countries as well. We have the potential, we just need to try a little bit harder, and for the upcoming new photographers, I would say, don't waste your time on taking random photographs of trees and buildings. Try to concentrate on the story behind those photos and what you want to tell the world with it. And try to build your own style so that when people will see the photo they will know you took it.