Exhibition and grant opportunity

The Open Society Foundations invite photographers to submit a body of work for consideration in the Moving Walls 20 group exhibition, scheduled to open in New York in early 2013. For the 2012 production grant, scroll to the bottom.

The Moving Walls exhibition series showcases documentary photography that highlights human rights and social issues that coincide with the Open Society Foundations’ mission. Moving Walls is exhibited at our offices in New York and Washington, D.C.

Launched in 1998, Moving Walls has featured over 175 photographers. Over the past 14 years, we have been proud to support the brave and difficult (and often self-funded) work that photographers undertake globally in their visual documentation of complex social and political issues. Their images provide the world with evidence of human rights abuses, put faces onto a conflict, document the struggles and defiance of marginalized people, reframe how issues are discussed publicly, and provide opportunities for reflection and discussion. Moving Walls honors this work while visually highlighting the Open Society Foundations’ mission to staff and visitors. Continue reading →

by Shahidul Alam Posted on April 7, 2012
Posted in Human rights, Migration, Photography, Photojournalism, USA | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Crossfire – Photographs by Shahidul Alam

Opening Reception & Forum: Sunday, April 15, 6:00 pm – 9:30 pm, 2012

Queens Museum of Art, NYC Building, Flushing Meadows Corona Park, Queens, NY 11368  DIRECTIONS

Forum & Opening Reception for Partnership Gallery Exhibition in Collaboration with Drik Picture Library, Dhaka.

Bangladeshi photographer and human rights activist Shahidul Alam’s Crossfire exhibition will open in the Partnership Gallery at the Queens Museum of Art on 15th April, 2012 and run until May 6th, 2012. The exhibition aims to gather international support for a campaign to end extra-judicial killings in Bangladesh by state forces, usually called “crossfire.” Continue reading →

by Shahidul Alam Posted on April 7, 2012
Posted in Bangladesh, Crossfire, Governance, Human rights, Killings, Law, Photography, politics, South Asia | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Here’s How U.S. Spies Will Find You Through Your Pics

Iarpa, the intelligence community’s way-out research shop, wants to know where you took that vacation picture over the Fourth of July. It wants to know where you took that snapshot with your friends when you were at that New Year’s Eve party. Oh yeah, and if you happen to be a terrorist and you took a photo with some of your buddies while prepping for a raid, the agency definitely wants to know where you took that picture — and it’s looking for ideas to help figure it out. Continue reading →

by Shahidul Alam Posted on April 6, 2012
Posted in Global Issues, Photography, security, surveillance, Technology | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Open Call for Curatorial Proposals

Young Curators, New Ideas IV 

mr. & mrs. amani olu, in conjunction with Meulensteen, are accepting curatorial proposals for Young Curators, New Ideas IV, opening at the gallery on June 7, 2012. Below is a brief about the exhibition along with submission guidelines. If you have questions, please do not hesitate to contact amani olu or visit.

Young Curators, New Ideas

Young Curators, New Ideas IV is an experimental group exhibition that broadly examines the intersection between curatorial practice and modes of artistic production. YCNI seeks to provide a venue for emerging curators to develop their practice, experiment with ideas, form relationships with artists and expand their presence within the contemporary art community. In the past, YCNI has supported projects by Karen Archey, Jon Feinstein, Laurel Ptak, Jose Ruiz, James Shaeffer, Lumi Tan and Cleopatra’s, to name a few. Continue reading →

by Shahidul Alam Posted on April 6, 2012
Posted in culture, New Media, Photography | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

CONCLUDING PART Reclaiming Jahangirnagar from a ‘godfather’ VC

 

by rahnuma ahmed

 

Jahangirnagar University teachers march to press home their seven-point demand, including trial of the killers of JU student Zubair Ahmed. February 11, 2012. © sun photo 

Is it an exaggeration to speak of Jahangirnagar university’s vice-chancellor professor Sharif Enamul Kabir as a `godfather’?

Press reports of the last one and a half years doesn’t incline one to think so. They strongly indicate, as do protests by students and teachers, that the VC provides protection to criminals. That he has violated every possible rule regarding teacher recruitment and promotion (to other posts, as well). That he has built up a regime where his ‘henchmen’ — students, teachers, administrators — located at every tier, maintain control over the campus through a combination of violence and the disbursement of favours. Continue reading →

by Shahidul Alam Posted on April 3, 2012
Posted in Bangladesh, Corruption, Governance, Rahnuma Ahmed, Resistance | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

PART-I Reclaiming Jahangirnagar from a ‘godfather’ VC

by rahnuma ahmed

English department Honours final year student Zubair Ahmed, brutally attacked,  allegedly by members of Bangladesh Chatra League belonging to "VC Group", succumbed a day later (January 9, 2012). Photographer unknown 

Its been a bit over a decade since I left Jahangirnagar to become a fulltime writer, but I discovered soon after that  no one really leaves Jahangirnagar. I’m still as attached to the place as I’d been when I was a faculty member. For good reasons too, for, when push comes to shove, one is bound to encounter a group of teachers and students, who, however powerful be the forces they are up against, however fractured they themselves might be, are willing to overlook ideological differences or personal rancour, to forge together a collective front. To protest, in order to reclaim JU as a place of higher learning and academic dissent, one where women students too, have equal claims to freedom of movement and association, free from sexual harassment and intimidation. A campus which, like its open and unfolding landscape, nurtures diversity and tolerance, nourishes the creation and re-creation of cultural inventiveness. Continue reading →

by Shahidul Alam Posted on April 3, 2012
Posted in Bangladesh, Corruption, Education, Governance, Rahnuma Ahmed, Resistance | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Voting for International Blog Awards begin

Dear Friends,

Voting begins today in the Deutsche Welle International Blog Awards – the BOBs.

Our international jury of bloggers and media experts waded through the more than 3,200 submissions you made and whittled the list down to just 187 candidates in 17 categories and 11 languages.

Now it’s up to Internet users like you to pore over the candidates and vote for the ones you find best. Your votes will decide the winner of the User Prize in all 17 categories.

In all 11 languages, there are some really great blogs, video channels and inspiring social activism campaigns and educational projects that run the gamut of online political and social responsibility and are certainly worth reading about.

Curious about the candidates yet! Go to the Voting page and get the lowdown on all of them and find out what some of the bravest, most creative and inventive bloggers are up to – whether you speak their language or not. Just click.

All the winners of the 2012 BOBs will be announced right here at thebobs.com on May 2. Jury winners will also be invited to an award ceremony to pick up their BOB in Bonn, Germany, on June 26 as part of the annual Deutsche Welle Global Media Forum.

And here is the Press Release:

For more information on this year’s competition

We would be very happy if you would also promote BOBs through your site/web page, facebook, twitter and through blogs/bloggers.

With kind regards,
Debarati

Debarati Guha
Deutsche Welle
Stellv. Redaktionsleiterin Südasien Programm
Deputy Head of South Asia Service
Hauptabteilung Asien
Asia Department
Multimediadirektion – REGIONEN
Multimedia-Directorate – REGIONS

Kurt-Schumacher-Str.3
D-53113 Bonn
Germany
Tel: +49.228.429-4713
Fax:+49.228.429-4720
Mobile: +49.172.3035567
Email

Visit our websites at:
http://www.dw.de/asiacompact
http://www.dw.de/bengali
http://www.dw.de/hindi
http://www.dw.de/urdu

by Shahidul Alam Posted on April 2, 2012
Posted in culture, Technology | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Missing the Monalisa smile

She was simple and sophisticated, charming and exuberant, quietly noisy, mildly strong, mischievously coy and full of life even in eminent death.

Rezwana Chowdhury Monalisa

We made plans seated in the Drik conference room. She wanted to study. She wanted to take on more responsibilities, she wanted to be more than a pretty, smiling face at the Reception. “I wish I could take your place one day” she said to me. I marveled at her courage. An unpopular HR Manager’s post is not what most would aspire to attain. “What’s stopping you?” I asked. “So much pressure to be good wife and mother, no time to be anything else” she said, little realising she didn’t have much time to be either, leave alone my post. This was nearly 3 years ago. Continue reading →

by Shahidul Alam Posted on March 31, 2012
Posted in Bangladesh, People | Tagged , , | 4 Comments