The Mundane & Multilayered

Photo: Darshan Chakma

Dhaka is a strange city; the elements scattered all around us can range from amusingly unexpected to epiphany-sparking to the utterly bizarre. Yet to the residents of this city, it is ever more familiar; the old and the new. “Dhaka Graam”, an exhibition of photographs from Instagram -- the photography, photo sharing and social networking app for smartphones -- was an apt display of that wonderfully weird character that defines the city we live in.

Arranged in a bit of a haste, the exhibition was refreshing in more ways than one: the sizes of photos and aspect ratios (square, about four inches per side), the venue (on the sidewalk of Road 7/A, Dhanmondi), and the participants -- ranging from the most serious photographers like Andrew Biraj and Anindya Kabir Avik to the free-spirited bohemian Biskut to musician Arnob.

The whole idea of Instagram is based on spontaneity -- with added filters, a fixed shape, and a platform to share your vision with the world. Whipping out the phone from a pocket and taking a photo any time we see something intriguing is more instinctive than anything else. The photos on display at “Dhaka Graam” were not indiscriminate though. As curator of the exhibition Amirul Rajiv put it, all the participants have a zeal for photography, whether they are professionals or just enthusiasts. So the photos they took have a certain quality to make the viewers stop in their tracks and force them to wonder what's beyond. The active Instagram community of Bangladesh is not that big, and everyone follows everyone, so when the idea sprang up, it did not take too long to organise the exhibition, he said.

And the photos did not fail to intrigue, if not impress. From the abstract to the surreal to the chuckle-inducing, they had it all. A top-shot of tin roofs in a geometric pattern, with hanging clothes on a clothesline and a family of three, for example, had many things in one: aesthetics, perspective and lifestyle.
Technicality and clarity are never checkpoints on the app, particularly because the camera hardware on the phones are practically toys compared to the stuff used by professional photographers, so an overexposed photo of fireworks or a grainy riverscape does not really disappoint, rather the candid quality of a number of photos -- like the one of an elephant walking through a main street -- adds to the appeal. A photographer thinks differently when he's aiming a DSLR at something than when he's pointing his phone, and the subjects are often much less conscious of it.

Photo: Shiful Riyadh

Asked why the name “Dhaka Graam”, Rajiv says it is to sort of express that Dhaka is not the typical megacity. People here still wait for the evening rain, enjoy a relaxed rickshaw ride in the afternoon, and love coming home to food cooked by their mothers. Any walk through a small patch of greenery brings a smile to a Dhakaite's face, and the thought of biryani and borhani is still more seductive than a 5-star dinner.
Rajiv says their plan is to expand this exhibit and hold many more, but always outdoors; the idea of going into a gallery would ruin the essence of it, he says.
“Dhaka Graam” is set to travel to Jahangirnagar University some time soon, and maybe in the future, to other cities.
The exhibition was coordinated by Md. Fahad-Al Alam, Jaheen Faruq Amin and Nayeem Ul Hasan, with the text written by Imran Firdaus. Participants were: Aninda Kabir Avik, Abedin Safi, Imran Firdaus, Ismail Ferdous, Andrew Biraj, Kazi Tahsin Agaz Apurbo, Jessica Alam Lia, Darshan Chakma, Daude Helal Fahim, Biskut, Farhan Chowdhury, Saud Al Faisal, Shayan Chowdhury Arnob, Saddat Hossain, Amirul Rajiv, Syed Rashad Imam Tanmoy, Stalin Joseph, Shiful Riyadh, Stalin Joseph and Sheikh Mehedi Morshed.