Achievement
RECONSTRUCTING CULTURE
Ian Parry 2013 winner Lingering Scars by Farzana Hossen.
The modern story of photography is more impressive than its cloudy early days. In this era, technology seems to have reached a new height with the advent of 'mobile clicks'. Now everyone, in cities and even remote hamlets is a photographer, and photojournalism has opened its otherwise enclosed boundary to every citizen. Photography has sprung out all its brevity through new media, but before the arrival of this new era photography used to be confined to newspapers, and literary and entertainment magazines.
As cultural analyst Walter Benjamin says, “The amateur who returns home with great piles of artistic shots is in fact no more appealing a figure than the hunter who comes back with quantities of game that is useless to anyone but the merchant.” He also adds that the day indeed seems to be closer “when there will be more illustrated magazines than game merchants. So much for the snap shots.”
Benjamin was right, because in modern times we cannot imagine a single magazine illustrated without photos. And undoubtedly, it helps the photographer to sustain economically but the thirst for knowledge in their mind remains where it was, since there was no magazine fully dedicated to photography. Bizarrely, photography trailblazers in the country did not show any interest in setting up a specialised magazine while photographers of the West were busy developing the medium and its theoretical aspect.
Kazi Riasat Alve, Life at Suhrawardy Udyan.
However, after years of waiting, a photography magazine called 'Counter Photo', which deals with socio-economic analysis, was launched in December 2004. It portrayed the legends from home and abroad, criticised the western ways of seeing the oriental life, examined the style of image from economic, social, technological, and political perspectives.
Acclaimed photographer Saiful Huq Omi, editor of Counter Photo, believes that the magazine was an inventory of human perception, “Counter Photo and Drik Picture Library Ltd jointly published the magazine. But I don't know why Drik stopped financing the project and thus, soon after the first edition we had to stop publishing.”
But it continued to flourish in other ways. Counter Photo had set up a photography school to promote its idea and core values. The formal journey of the school started in 2012 and within a short span of time, its students have achieved international recognition at the Ian Parry Scholarship (IPS), 2013.
A post of IPS on its Facebook page congratulates the 2013 winner Farzana Hossen for her strong set of images on violence against women ('Lingering Scars'). The IPS website praises the winning portfolio, saying Hosen tells a “personal story with brave and intelligent visual story, telling of great strength and depth of composition.”
Her photograph is reminiscent of the common woman. According to a research of University of Utha, more than 2,000 years ago, the Roman law gave a man the right and authority to choose whether his wife had the right to live or die. In the 18th Century, Englishmen were allowed by law to discipline his wife and children with a stick or whip no wider than his thumb. This "rule of thumb" prevailed in England and America until the late 19th century. The rule of men over their wives still persists in most Asian countries till date.
Hossen's photographs reveal the unsuspected mark of violence that raises the questions - can the law alone bring changes to violence against women in the country? What are the core reasons behind violence that have been going on in the society for years?
Hossen tells the Star, “Violence against women is a global phenomenon and I think it is an important issue we should address to raise awareness and make social change. In Bangladesh, reports of violence against women are on the rise. We all know about it but keep silent.”
Photographs are a way of imprisoning reality...
— Susan Sontag, On Photography
Two schools of thoughts persist regarding portrait photography. One of them seeks emotional appeal and a deeper meaning in portraits and the other believes that a portrait cannot always display the bigger landscape of life.
Farzana's work exhibited in Ian Parry's website is a colorful portrait of a woman who seems to be in solitude and is anxious about the uncertainty of her life. Aidan Sullivan Founder of IPS writes, “I am delighted that the judges have chosen another strong winning entry this year, both in terms of the importance of the subject and Farzana's remarkable personal story that brought her to approach it.”
Omi believes that a story sprung out of experience can observe the world more intimately, “Her story involved with the people's emotion, so in other words she recites a common pain of women through photography and that is why she has won the IPS.”
She also adds, “We should stand together and raise our voice against such crime. I want to continue my work on Women Violence and I would like to raise awareness for stopping this violence through my pictures.”
Kazi Riasat Alve, another student of Counter Photo, was given a commendation at the IPS. His photographic journey named “Life at Suhrawardy Udyan” shows an individual's attitude towards people. His photographs mainly explore the expressions of people living in the park. In his story, through photos, he asked an important question about the conventional structure of the society and why, to an extent, it is not yet ready to accept people who are living below the poverty line.
Alve started his project on Suhrawardy Udyan. He believes that photography is an instrument of telling stories about people and is the only thing that can change our attitude towards the subaltern people.
“It was not an easy task, since the park authority does not allow you to take photos or idle away in it. Moreover, it took nearly a month to photograph my whole story, because I wanted to get close to the people to dig out their pain and joy,” Alve says.
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