Shahidul Alam: My Journey as a Witness

Wilmotte Gallery, Lichfield Studios

6 October – 18 November 2011

"If you’re not making certain people uncomfortable by your presence, you must be doing something wrong. The struggle for change is a never-ending process that requires you to be constantly alert, and forever swimming against the current. It is a lonely, stressful, tiring and immensely gratifying journey.” Shahidul Alam

A retrospective of the ground-breaking photographer, writer, teacher and activist Shahidul Alam will take place at the Wilmotte Gallery, Lichfield Studios this autumn. The exhibition will introduce to London a dynamic figure, who has been largely responsible for the development of photography in the Indian Subcontinent.

Alam’s eagerly awaited new book (Skira Press), My Journey as a Witness, will launch simultaneously. It includes more than 100 images that retrace the artistic and visual journey of one of the most significant figures in documentary photography.

The 40 images in the exhibition will mark the 40th anniversary of Bangladesh Independence. They range from portraits of local people and scenes of daily life, to breathtaking landscapes and the impact of disaster situations. All taken in his native Bangladesh, the photographs chronicle Alam’s journey to challenge oppression and to document the social, political and cultural realities of his country. Spanning three decades of his life, the images offer both interpretative and investigative angles into a culture and national reality that is often misunderstood in the West.

Alam’s work in establishing networks for and developing the discipline of photography in his native Bangladesh has opened up the medium to an entirely new generation of artists. As a result, Bangladesh now has the highest number of documentary photographers in the world, some of whom, thanks to his efforts, are becoming internationally respected. Perhaps Alam’s biggest contribution to date has been introducing email to Bangladesh in 1994 and setting up the first web portal in the country. He founded the award-winning Drik Picture Library (www.drik.net) in 1989; the Bangladesh Photographic Institute in 1990; Pathshala, the South Asian Institute of Photography - considered one of the finest schools of photography in the world - (www.pathshala.net) in 1998; Meghbarta (www.meghbarta.org), Bangladesh's first webzine in 1999; and Chobi Mela (www.chobimela.org), a biennial international festival of photography, which is held in the capital, Dhaka.

Alam's most recent project is the founding of Majority World, a photo agency dedicated to providing a platform for non-Western photographers, redressing the balance of a world dominated by images from the West.

A jury member of numerous competitions including World Press Photo, for which he has been a judge on four occasions and recently the first non-western person to chair the international jury, Alam was also the first Asian recipient of the prestigious Mother Jones Award for Documentary Photography. His work has been exhibited internationally, including: MOMA, New York; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; the Royal Albert Hall, London; and The Museum of Contemporary Arts, Tehran. In 2010 he contributed as a curator and artist to the exhibition Where Three Dreams Cross at the Whitechapel Gallery in London. He currently lives and works in Dhaka.

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High-resolution images will be available to download from theresasimon.com/press in the coming weeks. In the interim please contact:

Visitor information:


Wilmotte Gallery at Lichfield Studios: 133 Oxford Gardens, London, W10 6NE
Hours: Tues – Fri, 11am – 6pm, Sat, 11 – 4pm
Exhibition: 6 October – 18 November 2011

Nearest Tube Station: Ladbroke Grove or Latimer Road
Public enquiries:
Website: www.tristanhoare.com

Notes to Editor:

Shahidul Alam was born in 1955 inDhaka,Bangladesh. He studied and taught chemistry in London where he obtained a PhD from theUniversity of London. He started photography in 1980 and was awarded theHarvey Harris Trophy for the photographer of the yearby theLondon Arts Councilin 1983. He became the president of the Bangladesh Photographic Societywhere he served for three terms. In 1989 he set upDrik Picture libraryand in 1998Pathshala: South Asian Institute of Photography. He is also a director ofChobi Mela, the festival of photography in Asia.He is a Jury member on numerous competitions includingWorld Press Photowhere he has been a judge on four occasions. Alam was the first non-western recipient of the Mother Jones Award for Documentary Photography. He is on the advisory board for theW. Eugene SmithMemorial Fund and theNational Geographic Society and is a visiting professor ofSunderland Universityin theUK and at UCLAin the United States. His most recent project is Majority World, a global community interest initiative formed to provide a platform for indigenous photographers, photographic agencies and image collections from themajority world to gain access to global image markets. Alam’s work has been exhibited in galleries such as MOMA in New York, the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, the Royal Albert Hall in London and The Museum of Contemporary Arts in Tehran.

Tristan Hoare studied History of Art at Edinburgh University. Following an internship at the Louvre, he spent four years at Christie’s Auctioneers, both London and Paris. During this time he worked in a variety of departments including 18th century French Furniture, Old Masters, Impressionist and Contemporary art, before focusing on photography. After leaving Christie’s, Tristan worked for Ben Brown Fine Arts in Cork Street before setting up his own company advising clients and curating mixed exhibitions. Tristan Hoare and celebrated international architect Jean-Michel Wilmotte, whose practice is situated on the first floor of the studios, will alternate exhibitions in the space. Hoare intends to show work rarely seen in this country, with three to four exhibitions per year, whilst Wilmotte UK is planning a major Lichfield exhibition in the summer.

Lichfield Studios was purchased by the Earl of Lichfield in 1984, where he designed and built a state of the art photographic studio. One of the great photographers of his generation, he used the studio to photograph Royals, celebrities and friends and was awarded fellowships of both the British Institute of Professional Photographers and the Royal Photographic Society. Notable shoots that took place at the studios include: Lady Thatcher (celebrating her 80th birthday), Pelé (recreating his famous overhead kick), Forty Years On (re-photographing his former Harrow school friends in the same style as their Leavers photographs of 1957) and also shooting, twenty years later, several of the sitters featured in his book Lichfield – The Most Beautiful Women (published in 1981). The Earl of Lichfield died in 200