Exhibition focuses on history of photography in Khulna

An exhibition titled ‘Khulnar Alokchitra Charcha: Itihasher Path Beye’ is underway at the district Shilpakala Academy in Khulna.

Noted photojournalist and founder of Drik Picture Library Shahidul Alam inaugurated the exhibition on February 24.

Senior photographers from Khulna, including members of the Khulna Photographic Society, Image Ghar Photographic Society, Khulna chapter of the Bangladesh Photo Journalist Association, and Khulna TV Camera Journalist Association, were also present at the opening ceremony.

The exhibition focuses the evolution of photography in Khulna between 1930 and 2000. Along with that, 170 photographs dating back half a century were selected from the personal collections of veteran photographers like Tushar Kanti Roy Chowdhury, Md Nurul Haque Lablu and many others. Photographs from the collection of Retina and Abhisar Studios are also on display at the show.

The oldest photo at the exhibition is taken by Tushar Kanti Roy Chowdhury when he along with his friends went to Premkanan at Jora Gate of the city in 1960.

Apart from it, many pictures of during 1962, 1965, 1970, the Liberation War, and later have been placed in the show.

The five-day-long exhibition has been organised to allow the young people to get a scope to know the history of photography in Khulna and how was the black-and-white era.

The journey of photography in Khulna started in 1930. ‘Focus’, the first photo studio in the district, was established in 1955. Since then, photographers have started to capture the nature and sense of the Khulna area through photography. The exhibition specifically focuses on exhibiting those photos. Driven by the urge to preserve and archive memories of different areas of Bangladesh, Drik Picture Library took a research initiative in 2017. So far, primary information about the history of photography has been collected in six districts, namely, Khulna, Bogura, Manikganj, Jashore, Rangpur, and Rajshahi. In each district, the focus was to find out the history of the photographers, their economic success and struggles, and the stories of the photographs they captured in various time periods.

The exhibition will remain open to all every day from 10:00 am to 8:00pm till February 28.