Creating art through the lens

We keep this love in a photograph

We made these memories for ourselves

Where our eyes are never closing

Hearts are never broken

And time's forever frozen, still

These few lyrics from Ed Sheeran's popular song 'Photograph' exemplifies how prominently these still memories encompass our life. 

Photograph in our life

Photographs or photos, there's barely any craving to exaggerate them. Mobile cameras being so convenient, urge us to take snaps like thousands a day. Be that your outfit of the day or food snap and even clicking nature's beauty to clicking thousands of selfies doesn't make us an unwaged photographer. It is a form of art that allows us to showcase our talents, illustrate stories, and grasp our best moments that are supposed to fade with time. It's about connecting with the past and conveying memories to future generations. Photographs make our life colourful, make time frozen, and whatnot.

Things that make photographers crackhead

The imaginative process, along with the cameraman's proficiency and showmanship, is at the epicentre of photography. Whenever there's an event, the first person we think of is a photographer. Yet they have to hear and bear things like - make sure I look tall or slim, please bring your camera, photography is just a hobby, not a career, your job is so simple just press the button, and that's it, and many more. 

World Photography Day commemorates the worldwide annual festival of the digital format, which performs an integrated aspect in the way we perceive the universe surrounding us—recognised on August 19th all around the planet, to pay tribute to these memory holder wizards, to applaud their accomplishments and creativity.

Not necessarily a career or profession

Photo: Mohammad Rafy

Mohammad Rafy is a postgraduate student from the Marketing department, University of Dhaka. In a chit-chat with the writer, he spoke of the period when the urge of photography got into his mind. 

"Being a touring freak, I sometimes spectator moments that aren't ever likely to come back. And there's the yearning. Approximately 3 or 4 years back, my photography journey began." 

While revisiting the alleys of memories, he retorted how he became good at photography.  

"I follow a lot of photographers, mostly street photographers. And their work is my inspiration. They are the combination of my inklings along with theirs. I always try to work on an idea for a long time so that in future moments like this, a frame will quickly come into my head."

Rafy thinks having a professional camera is not important for a good street photographer. All you need is a positive aura and enthusiasm. With his favourite lens, a 20mm f1.4, he showed the writers the photos he loved most from his captures.

Gazi Rezanul Haque, known as 'Story of a Shutterbug,' is a photojournalist from a local news daily who shares how photography got into his spirit.

Photo: Gazi Rezanul Haque

"It all began in my second year of college. My father used a digital camera to take pictures whenever he was on a foreign tour. I utilised his camera to take pictures of birds and people from my room's window. But the journey started after being admitted to the university." 

Never learning photography and having zero knowledge about the technicality of photography was his first barrier, though he kept taking pictures randomly and regularly. It slowly made him self-taught about framing, lighting and colours.

When asked about his favourite lens, he said

"Loving landscape photography leads me to use wide angle lenses. Though I don't have one right now, I love working with them." 

Rezan wishes to know that good gear isn't all that is needed for photography. He said, "Having a good camera is all we need to start our photography journey is a superstition and not the right mentality, in my opinion." 

Showing the most loved works from his Tanguar haor tour at Sunamganj, he said, "It's my favourite because of the experience I had while taking this picture. The calm nature, weather, night sky, and hospitality from locals. In other words, the whole ambience made it my favourite one."

Loco_poco_ is an Instagram-based street photography page run by Dilawar Hossain Talha. 

"I'm not a professional photographer. I capture moments while walking outside. It all started in the year 2017 with my mobile phone. Every time I witness a moment, a story is created in my mind. Then I capture that moment and relate the story to it," Talha said. 

Photo: Dilawar Hossain Talha

He, too, is a self-taught photographer who learned from noticing prominent photographers' photographs and tried to implement them. 

Talha believes there's hardly any standard to measure whether a photograph is good or bad.

"Sometimes, even a photo without proper framing can be more beautiful than a structured one," he smiled.

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