Celebrating International Photography in Bangladesh at Chobi...

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Celebrating International Photography in Bangladesh at Chobi Mela

To see more photos from Chobi Mela, follow @chobimela on Instagram, and browse the hashtags #chobimela and #CMVIII.

Every two years, Dhaka becomes the unlikely site of Chobi Mela, one the world’s most unusual photography festivals. Launched 16 years ago by photographer Shahidul Alam (@shahidul001), the biennial Chobi Mela brings photographers from all over world to Bangladesh. “We’re organizing a festival at a time when the country is on the verge of civil war, according to some people,” says Shahidul, speaking of recent political clashes and demonstrations that have brought Dhaka’s already dense traffic to a standstill. Almost a dozen exhibitions span the city, ranging from a movie theater where disc-shaped photographs hang suspended in mid-air, to vinyl-printed images carried along by a roving fleet of cycle rickshaws. “There are lots of photographers like me who have grown up with Chobi Mela,” says photojournalist Munem Wasif (@munemwasif), now also a festival curator. “It’s entirely a Bangladeshi-run festival for an international audience. Normally the festivals are based in the west and it’s not possible for us to go and visit all these places.” He reveals the logic behind the obscure venue locations that transform the exhibition experience into a scavenger hunt through the congested streets of the old city. “We want people to travel, and struggle, and see how Dhaka is.”

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