Being a busy metropolis with over 2 crore people, Dhaka has stories to tell from every possible dimension. The city is like an album with hundreds of thousands of photographs that depicts life.
Salman Siddique Prottoy, Anirban Kaiser and Saif Sarwar are three photographers who are trying to capture those life stories, the aura of Dhaka, our very own ‘Jadur Shohor,’ each in their own ways.
This writer talked to these young photographers who are rising in prominence through the lens of their cameras.
Salman Siddique Prottoy
Salman Siddique Prottoy
Salman Siddique Prottoy is a 3rd-year undergraduate student currently studying in the Department of Economics at Dhaka University (DU), who is “comparatively new to the world of photography" in his own words. He always had the urge to look at ordinary things from a different point of view since his childhood.
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Prottoy’s photography
"I used to take photos with my smartphone till 2019. Then I took a temporary hiatus from photography until August 2020 when I bought my camera. I started by doing urban landscape and street photography with my limited technical knowledge of photography back then.”
Prottoy’s photography
Being a fast learner, Prottoy grasped the idea of what he was trying to portray with the magical machine in his hand soon.
“I did a juxtaposition photo series called 'Dhaka- Paper on Air' which gave me my first bit of appreciation and awards from a handful of photography awards. It was a before and after contrast sequence between the daily lives of Dhaka in the 80s and the current generation.
“Moving from that, my motto to take photos was always to concentrate on subjects and surroundings which are almost always taken for granted by photographers."
Talking about his preferences and passions he added, "One of my favourite subjects to shoot is the Royal Bengal Rickshaw, the ride that every Bangladeshi use in their day to day movement.”
Prottoy’s photography
The back-hood of a rickshaw strangely resembles an elegant muslin or Jamdani veil to Prottoy. He loves to call it the urban palanquin of modern-day Dhaka.
“To me, Dhaka is a concrete jungle and when I am looking at all the living breathing things in this ecosystem, I feel like a wildlife photographer in the dress of a street photographer.”
“I have been doing photography for about 19 months with my camera,” Prottoy narrates his future plan, “Although I am currently a hobbyist photographer with passion as my only drive, I am planning to move to motion pictures from still ones and make full-length feature films in the future."
Prottoy has a large fan following on social media sites, with some of his works transcending Bangladesh and becoming popular in Kolkata reaching as many as about a million people.
Anirban Kaiser
Anirban Kaiser, a student at the Department of Mass Media and Journalism at Independent University, Bangladesh has a different passion. He gravitates toward travel and fashion photography.
Anirban’s photography
Speaking of his journey he told the writer, " My photography journey started back in 2017 during my A-Level days when I got my first ever smartphone. For the first two years it used to be a hobby, slowly after getting a good response on social media, I started to take photography more seriously.”
A couple in Puran Dhaka - Anirban’s photography.
“I took out a dusty seven-year-old camera Nikon D60 from the corner of my drawer that my uncle gave to me and went out to explore with it. Photography used to work as a therapy for me especially back in my A-Level days under massive study pressure. "
Anirban’s photography
Anirban has travelled a lot in life which he thinks shaped his creativity and love for capturing stories.
“I love watching films as well which had an impact on my visuals and colour sense. Throughout the years, I have had the opportunity to work and photograph some incredible people."
Anirban, despite his relatively short stint as a photographer, has already been featured at many world-renowned places. Talking about his remarkable works, he said,
"Among all the features I would say my photograph getting featured in Al Jazeera was one of my biggest achievements. It was a photograph from the protest against Rape back in November 2020.".JPG)
A photo from the protest against rape in 2020 - Anirban’s photography.
Many photographs of that protest were featured internationally and around the country. Anirban had the opportunity to work with many celebrities and influencers from the country and international influencers like Dear Alyne from team Nas Daily on her trip to Dhaka.
“I have worked with YouTubers like Rafsan the Chotobhai, Ayman Sadiq, Tawhid Afridi and my favourite Bangladeshi bands like Nemesis, Artcell, Encore, Avoid Rafa and many more. I have had the opportunity to work with many leading models of the industry," shared the young photographer regarding his diverse journey.
Anirban’s photography
Anirban wants to take photography as a profession and being an avid traveller, wants to visit all possible countries in the world while representing Bangladesh on a global stage.
Saif Sarwar
Saif Sarwar
Unlike the other two, Saif Sarwar has a different field of interest. He focuses on automobiles photography, starting off as a musical content creator on YouTube, Saif moved towards photography after a few years and has so far been considering it to be his long-term occupation.
Jeep Wrangler – Saif’s photography.
"I made music straight 4-5 years to see and to really make it to my full-time career. However, little did I know that making music full-time here in Bangladesh is a nearly impossible thing to imagine and is well criticised.
“So a few years later, I thought and practically saw that making music will take me nowhere and I have to switch up to something that might get me somewhere.”
Besides music, Saif’s 2nd interest was Photography. He remembers getting anyone’s phone to take beautiful images.
BMW- Saif’s photography
Things began to change as Saif made a video that day in 2019 which got appreciated by the entire Car Community and that got him a lot of attention throughout the car scene.
“As I continued attending different Automotive Events and making cinematic videos and photos, I was slowly starting to get approached by Automotive Businesses. And as soon as I started making videos and photos professionally within the car scene, I already had good contact within the businesses."
Saif has already collaborated with some of the big names in the Automobile industry.
"I had the opportunity to work with some Giant Automotive brands, Such as JEEP and Audi. I felt Inspired and I kept on creating and improving throughout the process," he noted.
As of 2022, Saif is still working with Automotive brands and making Online content as well. Social media has worked like a charm for him and his work, thousands of people appreciate them.
“Both on YouTube and other platforms like Instagram and TikTok, my videos get a lot of attention from Bangladesh as well as some other Countries.”
Ford Mustang - Saif’s photography.
As of now, Saif is planning to move to another country so that his work gets a broader opportunity and he can create for more brands and make his way slowly into the film industry.
“I plan to move abroad as the automobile scene in Bangladesh is still quite new, but would like to represent Bangladesh in this sector as we are underrepresented."
Photography being a full-time occupation is still not mainstream in Bangladesh. But with people like Prottoy, Anirban and Saif, capturing multiple genres of the bustling scenes in the capital, it might be a craft that many people would be willing to master in the future.
rassiq.aziz@gmail.com