Curators

Portrait of Tanzim Wahab, Shahidul Alam and Munem Wasif (from left to right) — Tanzim Wahab, Shahidul Alam and Munem Wasif (from left to right) | photo: © Lys Y. Seng

Shahidul Alam (b. 1955) is a photographer, writer, and curator. A Time Magazine "Person of the Year" 2018 and "National Geographic Explorer at large", Alam obtained a PhD in chemistry before switching to photography. Alam's work has been exhibited in the most prestigious galleries worldwide. He has chaired the international jury of World Press Photo. John Morris described his book “My journey as a witness” as “the most important book ever written by a photographer”. Alam founded the Drik Photo Agency, the Pathshala Media Institute and the Chobi Mela festival of photography and introduced email to Bangladesh.

Tanzim Wahab (b. 1986) is a curator, researcher and lecturer. He is the director of Chobi Mela International Festival of Photography. He has headed several curatorial research projects and exhibitions including Breaking Ground – featuring works of the modernist forerunners of Bengal, (Dis) Place – an exhibition about displacement; looking at the possibility of a post-historical space and function as a symbolic “act of discharge” (with Hadrien Diez) and currently co-editing Primary Documents – The Museum of Modern Art’ (MoMA) publication series on international art. He has also been a fellow of several programs, including Art for Social Change, United States, and Art Think South Asia (ATSA), India, among others.

Munem Wasif (b. 1983) is an artist, curator and educator. His work examines the concepts of 'documents' and 'archives' and their corresponding influence on politically and geographically complex issues. He has been a co-curator of Chobi Mela since the festival’s eighth edition, and has curated three major survey shows for the festival: of legendary Bangladeshi photographer Anwar Hossain (2015), Nasir Ali Mamun (2017) and Rashid Talukder (2019). In 2020/21, Wasif was a Fellow at the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin. His works have been shown in institutions worldwide, including the Centre Pompidou, Whitechapel Gallery, Victoria & Albert Museum, Fotomuseum Winterthur and the Chobi Mela Photo Festival.