Exhibition

In the World of Photography

Apurba Jahangir

The guests inaugurating the event. Courtesy: NSUPC

Ever wondered how you could express your thoughts and feelings to the world? Well, there are a lot of things that will help you tell your story. But one of the best and, undoubtedly, one of the most exciting ways is through photography. Just take a snap and it is good enough to tell the whole world what you think.

Photography has always been a craze among the youth. It all started as a hobby at first, an extracurricular activity maybe. But now, we have serious photographers amongst us who have the potential to take it to the next level. And that is where NSUPC (North South University Photography Club) comes in with IIUPE (International Inter University Photography Exhibition).

IIUPE first originated from IUPE (Inter University Photography Exhibition), in 2000, by NSUPC. Their vision was to promote photography among photo enthusiasts. Till 2002, the competition was held at national level, just among the universities around Bangladesh. Then in 2003, IUPE became global and IIUPE was formed. IIUPE was established as a platform through which promising photographers would get a chance to showcase their talent, skills and thoughts to the world. It also acts as a bridge between the amateur and the professional photography enthusiasts, enabling them to interact and share the thoughts on photography with a motive to further the enlightenment.

Each year their exhibition gets more interesting and the number of participants goes higher. But this year they outgrew all of their previous statistical numbers. This year IIUPE received a total of 6000 photograph entries from 715 photographers, belonging to 158 universities among 34 countries. However, the photos of 160 photographers of 12 countries (Bangladesh, Russia, India, UK, USA, France, Poland, South Africa, Indonesia, Greece, China, and Canada) were selected by the panel to be displayed at the exhibition. Around 270 photographs and eight photo stories competed for 53 awards under different categories. The entries were under 'colour', and 'black and white' mediums. The photos were classified into eight sub categories which were action, architecture, daily life, landscape and nature, portrait, still life, photo story and conceptual.

The opening ceremony of the exhibition started at 11:00 am on October 19, 2012, at the National Art Gallery of Bangladesh, Shilpakala Academy. By visiting the gallery that day, you could tell that our country has produced a lot of photographers who can represent us internationally. The place was filled with students from different universities exploring the world of still pictures. The opening ceremony caught a huge crowd. The gallery was graced by the presence of the chief guest, Mahbub Ahmed, Secretary Ministry of Youth and Sports, Government of Bangladesh, guest of honour, Acting Vice-Chancellor of North South University, Abdus Sattar, special guest Akku Chowdhury, Founder and Trustee, Liberation War Museum along with the executive body of NSUPC consisting, Abedin Safi (President), Sharmin Jahan (Vice-President), Miraz Ahmed Chowdhury (General Secretary) and Quazi Tafsirul Islam (Treasurer). The event was inaugurated by the judge panel representative Hasib Zakaria. The whole competition was judged by well known and respected photographers of the country. The judges panel was overwhelmed by the presence of Andrew Biraj, Photographer, Reuters; Hasib Zakaria, Vice Principal, Pathshala South Asian Media Academy and; Saiful Huq Omi, Photographer and, Curator, Tanvir Murad Topu, Faculty member, Pathshala South Asia Media Academy.

After cutting the ribbon, the exhibition was officially open to the spectators. Each frame contained a story crafted with creativity. For example, Desher ki obostha, a photo by a student of IUB captured a baby looking at the newspaper with a tensed expression. The photo demonstrates how we all, including babies should really worry about where our country stands. Different stages of life, another photo by a student of East West University portrayed our whole life scheme.

The exhibition continued till October 24, 2012. Every day the gallery was buzzing with students and photography lovers. Nazmul Khan, a student of AIUB says, “This is one of the biggest platforms a photographer can ask for and we, the admirers, always look forward to coming to such exhibitions.” Quazi Tafsirul Islam, Treasurer of the NSUPC, says, “This is one of the most extensive exhibitions IIUPE has ever organised, this shows that the photography of our country is really being appreciated by other countries of the world. And if we keep on heading in this direction, in a couple of years, we will really see ourselves at the top.”

The whole exhibition showed us that the photographers of our country have every bit of potential to do something huge in the photography scene. We have photographers who can actually represent us at an international level. IIUPE did a tremendous job by supporting these talents.