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Telling stories that matter....

In conversation with Munem Wasif
Munem Wasif is one of the top documentary photographers of Bangladesh, who has gained a volume of international acclaim for his social, humanistic storytelling. In a recent conversation with The Daily Star, the photographer spoke about his works, photography style and more.
Tell us about your latest publication, "Belonging"
Wasif: It's basically about the old part of Dhaka, something I've been doing for 12 years, since I was a student at Pathshala. My childhood was spent in a small town, Comilla, and so when I moved here, I found more resemblance of Old Dhaka to my hometown than other parts. It's a much more relaxing part of the city, although it may look chaotic from the outside. Plus, it's changing; old buildings are being torn down, so I thought it would be a good place to document. Also, I lived for a long time here, so there's that connection.
What's the story behind the publishing of the book?
Wasif: It was published from France, by Clementine De La Ferronniere, and had an exhibition in Paris, and then in Cambodia. I work with a French agency called Agence Vu, and my previous two books were also published from France. It's difficult to publish books from Bangladesh for two reasons; first, it's extremely expensive, and secondly, the distribution is crucial, and it's not easy to do that through a Bangladeshi publisher. I think it's tragic that the people of the place you focused the book on cannot buy it, because these books tend to be very pricey. I want to solve that issue differently; when I have an exhibition of "Belonging" here, I want to host it somewhere in Old Dhaka. But my primary focus had to be to reach out to a global audience.
Another series of yours has been featured on Time magazine's online photo-blog "Lightbox" recently. Could you shed some light on that?
Wasif: That is another thing I've been working on for some time. After 9/11, I had a lot of trouble getting a visa to Europe and all because of my name and appearance. Also, I didn't like the photos that my friends who worked in Iraq and Afghanistan brought back; I thought it was a very 'Western perspective' representation of Islam. To counter that proposition, I wanted to tell a story of Islam in Bangladesh - In God "We" Trust - portraying that Islamic perception and interpretations are different, even between members of a family. It was not to show what was good or bad, but rather the contrasting layers of it that is present just in Bangladesh; so if you extrapolate that to Muslims worldwide, you can imagine how vast and varied it is.
Your photos predominantly play with tonalities of greyscale, and not colour. Why is that?
Wasif: The photographers I were inspired by when 1 started photography all worked in that medium. And 15 years back, photography was not digitised; the whole processing and developing process was interesting. With black and white, you could process it differently, print it on a different kind of film, and it had a different, timeless appeal. When you look at a good black and white photo, it is sometimes difficult to tell the age of it. Since my beginning, I trained myself as a black and white photographer. Like, if I look at my surroundings, I can tell what shade of grey it will produce in process. Also, since I do humanistic and social stories, I think colour is somewhat seductive and distracts the audience from the story itself. But if I had started photography now, I would have worked in colour.
What's your take on Bangladesh's current photography scenario?
Wasif: I think Bangladeshi photographers have worked with leading global agencies for a long time, and all the top photographers have exhibited work all over the world. We have a great platform in Drik, and because of internet, the world of photography has opened up. A young photographer can today realistically believe that his work can win international competitions, something that may not be the case in other art forms for Bangladesh. So I think it's great, and better days are ahead.