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Cristina nuñez brings the self-portrait experience® to Dhaka

    This Chobi Mela, Cristina Nuñez, Spanish artist-photographer-researcher, brings her exemplary work and philosophy to Bangladesh.

    Internationally acclaimed and extensively researched upon in various academic spheres, Nuñez’s work has largely explored the ‘Self’. She had initially taught herself to use photography in communicating her most overwhelming, violent, repressed and intimate emotions whilst trying to cope with a troubled adolescence. Over the years, her self-therapeutic take on photography has evolved into a method that has been taught, replicated and heavily researched all over the world- The Self-Portrait Experience®.

    Faring fair ferry

      I probably saw the news first on some daily. Then, one evening, a friend and I started from home and crossed the water tank to look for the Kalpana Boarding at Shakhari Bazaar. It took almost no time to find it. I can still remember what a strange experience it was. We were all walled- enclosed under an open sky. In that dying winter, I first saw framed photos hanging on walls. Many other came to see them; we were no exception. We then kept looking for what other places there were homing these exhibitions by Chobi Mela. We kept visiting one after the other- Shahbagh Museum, Drik Gallery, Alliance Francaise , Shilpakala- and we found a new door to a new world, or was it a window? It was something entirely new to us. We had a feeling of being lost in a pleasant puzzle of lights or colours, or of something very humane in some strange inexplicable way.

      Shaping a vision with swapan parekh

        Swapan Parekh, son of the legendary photojournalist Kishor Parekh is one of the seminal visionaries of Contemporary Indian Photography who has introduced the documentary aesthetic to Indian advertising photography. His work conveys spontaneity; even in controlled environments; opening new avenues to contemporary photography which he describes as “celebration of the ordinary”.

        An interview with Graciela Iturbide

          Graciela Iturbide (born 1942) is a Mexican photographer who turned to photography after the death of her daughter in the early 1970s. Munem Wasif, curator of Chobi Mela interviewed Iturbide in February 2013 when she came to Dhaka to receive Chobi Mela VII’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

          The most celebrated photo event in Asia gears up for another extravaganza

            It is always tough living up to the Chobi Mela hype, but CMVIII promises to be our finest yet. Starting on the 23rd January 2015, this action packed fortnight long festival has again some of the finest work from every continent. 32 print shows and a video projection spread across the six galleries in Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy (The Academy of Fine and Performing Arts), the two galleries each at Drik, the Alliance Française and the newly built Daily Star-Bengal Arts Precinct, the National Museum, the leafy outdoor location of Bokultola at the Faculty of Fine Arts, the happening Britto Arts Trust and the exciting locations by the riverside in Old Dhaka – the quaint Beauty Boarding, the colonial architecture of Northbrook Hall and the charming Bulbul Lalitakala Academy make up the gallery exhibits. Yet again, a smaller version of the entire festival prepares to tour the city in ricksha vans, taking the galleries to the public.

            Introduction-secretariat update

              Chobi Mela, Asia’s largest celebration of photography and visual storytelling brought to you by Drik Picture Library Ltd. and Pathshala South Asian Media Institute, is back for the 8th time, and is bigger than ever as it plans to saturate Dhaka, Bangladesh for two weeks with stories untold and unseen, stories that stir nostalgia, stories that titillate, and stories that madden us, as we explore the theme of ‘Intimacy’ with the help of more than 30 artists from across 22 countries. Taking place from the 23rdof January, 2015 to the 5thof February, 2015across 11 venues all over Dhaka in an attempt to bring together all the diverging faces and dimensions of this city, Chobi Mela VIII will bring big names likeAnwar Hossain, Cristina Nuñez, Denis Dailleux, James Estrin and Larry Towell under the same roof with some of the most up and coming photographers of the region to create a synergy of exchange, expression and desegregation.

              About Us

              Chobi Mela, the first festival of photography in Asia, is one of the most exciting ventures that Drik and Pathshala has initiated. The first Chobi Mela – International Festival of Photography was held in December 2000 – January 2001. It is the most demographically inclusive photo festival in the world and is held every two years in Dhaka.

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