Gazi Nafis Ahmed

The author is an internationally renowned artist working with photography and video. He has exhibited worldwide. He taught at the Danish School of Media & Journalism, Complutense University, Istituto Europeo di Design Madrid, and Lens School of Visual Arts, among others, and is an honorary fellow at Columbia University.

Documentary photography: A journey from truth to interpretation in visual storytelling

The formal aim of social documentary was initially to keep records, but by the 1930s, it evolved to enlighten and educate. Photographers gathered images to develop a ‘picture story’—a sequence of images that visually narrated incidents, with minimal text descriptions for context. These photo stories were powerful, capturing the world “in motion,” and representing people and their range of emotions—whether smiling, crying, angry, or vulnerable in moments as ordinary as any other in their daily lives.

1m ago

Remembering Gazi Shahabuddin Ahmed

From a very young age, Gazi Shahabuddin was a voracious reader. He would read whatever he could lay his hands on.

7y ago
October 15, 2024
October 15, 2024

Documentary photography: A journey from truth to interpretation in visual storytelling

The formal aim of social documentary was initially to keep records, but by the 1930s, it evolved to enlighten and educate. Photographers gathered images to develop a ‘picture story’—a sequence of images that visually narrated incidents, with minimal text descriptions for context. These photo stories were powerful, capturing the world “in motion,” and representing people and their range of emotions—whether smiling, crying, angry, or vulnerable in moments as ordinary as any other in their daily lives.

August 6, 2017
August 6, 2017

Remembering Gazi Shahabuddin Ahmed

From a very young age, Gazi Shahabuddin was a voracious reader. He would read whatever he could lay his hands on.