OUR PICKS OF THE MONTH
FEBRUARY 2012
BOOK
Citizen Journalist
Shahidul Alam’s eminence as an educator, activist, curator and critic of Western
media is so great, these achievements have tended to overshadow his work as
a photojournalist. The publication of My Journey as a Witness, which combines
his written reflections on his career with 30 years’ worth of his images, should
shift the balance. The book includes photos he has taken in England, China,
Nepal, India and Pakistan, but the majority of the work was shot in his native
Bangladesh. He shows us his country through intimate portraits, complex
compositions of daily life and work, and landscapes shot at sometimes
unexpected angles. Alam writes in the prologue, “These images are intended as
a window into my majority world country; one rarely seen beyond the clichés
and even less understood.”
In the 1980s, Alam returned to Bangladesh from England, where he was
educated, and began photographing, sometimes at great risk, the growing
protests against his country’s military rule. The movement was largely
ignored in the West, but in 1991, when a cyclone hit the country, “The same
Western photographers flew over at the first hint of disaster and returned
with the same piteous imagery, reducing a proud people to icons of poverty.”
At the time, platforms that would allow “majority world” photographers
“to compete with their Western peers were simply not in place.” Alam has
worked to change that by founding the Drik Picture Agency, launching Chobi
Mela, the first photo festival in Asia, and creating Pathshala, a media school in
Dhaka, Bangladesh, that has trained a generation of world-renowned, award-
winning photojournalists. His educational work continues in this memoir.
Alam presents his work and critical essay as a guide, “one that photographers,
picture lovers and photography consumers can use as a navigating tool” to
understanding how images of poorer nations are commissioned, disseminated
and interpreted.
EXHIBITION
Callahan’s Centennial
To commemorate the
100-year anniversary of
Harry Callahan’s birth,
the National Gallery of
Art is presenting “Harry
Callahan at 100.” The
retrospective includes
over 100 works by the
late photographer,
which are displayed
“thematically and
chronologically” and
cover his early days in
the Midwest cities of
© eState of harry Callahan, CourteSy
PaCe/maCGill Gallery, new york
Detroit and Chicago,
his prolific years in
“Chicago, 1950” by Harry Callahan.
Providence, Rhode Island, and later in his life when he traveled extensively.
Known for focusing on three themes—city life, nature and his wife, Eleanor—Callahan
was actually much more varied and daring than often given
credit for. He shot both black-and-white and color photography,
and experimented by making multiple exposures within his
camera, thereby creating new and fresh ways to approach his
recurring subject matter. If you’re only familiar with a few of his
well-known images, it’s worth checking out this exhibit to see
the impressive range of his work.
“Harry Callahan at 100”
Through March 4, 2012
National Gallery of Art
Constitution Avenue NW
Washington, D.C. 20565
Telephone: 202-737-4215
www.nag.gov
My Journey as a Witness
By Shahidul Alam
Introduction by Sebastiao Salgado; Preface by Raghu Rai
Skira/Rizzoli (in association with the Bengal Foundation)
Hardcover, 224 pages
$50
“Ilish fishing, Daulatdia, Bangladesh, 2001” by Shahidul Alam.
EXHIBITION
Queen of Disguises
It’s been 15 years since influential artist
and photographer Cindy Sherman has
had a major, comprehensive exhibit—and
luckily fans of her work don’t have much
longer to wait. In February, the Museum of
2012 – January 27, 2013) in Minneapolis. “Untitled #183. 1988.” by Cindy Sherman. “Cindy Sherman” February 26 – June 11, 2012 Museum of Modern Art 11 W 53rd Street New York, NY 10019 Telephone: 212-708-9431
www.moma.org
Modern Art in New York City is presenting a
“retrospective survey” of her artwork, which
will feature over 180 photographs made
from the mid-1970s through the present.
The exhibit will feature some of
© SHAHIDUL ALAM, SHAHIDUL ALAM: M Y JOURNE Y AS A WI TNESS, SKIRA, 2011.
Sherman’s most interesting and beloved self-portrayed characters including the fictional
film actresses of the 1950s and 60s from
© 2011 Cindy Sherman
“Untitled Film Stills”; common subjects from
Old Masters paintings, such as aristocrats
and milkmaids; and her over-the-top
“society” women. Also on display is her most
recent work: murals that depict a Sherman
character in color against a black-and-white
landscape painting.
In conjunction with the exhibit, MOMA will be screening
films selected by Sherman. However, don’t fret if you can’t
make it to Manhattan in time; “Cindy Sherman” will also be
on display at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (July
