'He Belongs To The World': The Powerful Work Of A Jailed Bangladeshi Photographer
Photojournalist and activist Shahidul Alam has helped nurture a generation of South Asian photographers. He was jailed last month on charges of "spreading propaganda and false information."
"[The] camera should be in my hand."
That's what Shahidul Alam, an acclaimed Bangladeshi photographer, educator and activist, said on Aug. 8 as he was being transferred to a police office in the capital Dhaka. Three days earlier, Alam, 63, had been detained, charged with "spreading propaganda and false information against the government" online, under a law the government has repeatedly used to punish criticism against it.
Alam is synonymous with photography in South Asia. In a career spanning more than three decades, he has chronicled his country's tumultuous history, photographing natural disasters, political upheaval, human rights abuses and, recently, the conditions facing Rohingya refugees who fled to Bangladesh
