Photo Opportunity

M. Zaman

The tasteful presentation of life is something that photographers have been doing since the discovery of the media itself. In Bangladesh, as far as aesthetic quality is concerned, Map is the name that stands apart.

Map, started during the late eighties, is a platform that helped produce better black and white photography. What Dhaka lacked in absence of institutional supports is what Map created. They built a house that catered, and still does, to the photographers need to have access to technical support. Map was there when DRIK was not even envisaged.

A Photograph by Chandan

Few aspiring photographers thought of them as an extended family and started this fraternity of sorts that meant to provide them with a platform. A place from where they would be able to operate. "It is a platform to share and help to form a circle, unselfishly," reveals the photographers in the preface of the book titled Britto; which is a tome of their works. As for the show, it is virtually a visual feast. The pictures are life and nature dissected and presented by piecemeal.

At La Galarie, where works of Chandan, Kiron, Khaled, Mahmud and Sujan were showcased, one had an opportunity to taste their artifice. The Show titled Britto started from the 13th and lasted till the 24th of December. Their works that reveal their documentary-prone selves supplements the exquisite beauty that these photographers aim to achieve in many a picture. It is the works of Chandan and Sujan that mostly want to transcend the boundary of represented reality. This tendency brushes on to the works of others too. Many works simply are beauty exemplified.

Slices of real life also barge in. Perhaps not to meddle with the taste with which the artists presented their works. But they did provide glimpses of the reality with their bites almost intact. Kiron's little street boy perched on an angular architectural structure, Sujan's picture of a boy and a man giving bath to their two water buffaloes are proof of this. The documentation of the indigenous people too made a difference.

A Photograph by Sujan

This was a good show from the contingent that once showed how young photographers banded together to make a difference. It was encouraging to see that they still have much of their old juice running.

It was a charity show that strove to raise fund for Chinnamukul, an organisation that was floated during the famine ’74 to help out underprivileged children.