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Mohammad Rakibul Hasan graduated in Film and Video Production from UBS Film School at the University of Sydney, Australia, where he was inspired into photography. “While studying there, I realised that not only motion pictures are strong visuals, still pictures can also deliver a compelling message,” says Hasan. Through this realisation, he had then embarked upon a journey that took him to great heights and he has never looked back since.
“In 2011-12, I was granted a full scholarship to pursue a Post Graduate Diploma in Photojournalism at Konrad Adenauer Asian Center for Journalism (ACFJ) at Ateneo de Manila University, Philippines,” says Hasan. Mastering his course there with the highest grades in class, he is currently studying History of Art, an online programme, through the University of Oxford.
Hasan works as a freelance photographer, represented by an Australian photo agency called Falcon Photo Agency. “It has been over ten years since I got into photography but my knack for film hasn't died out. Along with photography, I shoot documentary films every now and then as well,” explains Hasan.
Mohammad Rakibul Hasan also founded Bangladeshi Photographers (BP) in 2005 as an online platform for amateur photographers mainly, along with two other photographers- Mohammad Monirruzzaman and Kazi Tahsin Agaz Apurbo. “Many others joined later in the group. We have successfully encouraged many young hopefuls who are now practicing photography, some professionally while others became great enthusiasts,” says Hasan.
According to Hasan, winning awards cannot be a parameter for measuring the overall achievement of a photographer. “Awards are a sort of recognition that definitely helps bringing exposure in the industry. I have won several accolades in the field of photography. But as a documentary photographer my greatest achievement is whenever my photographs play a part in the betterment of society,” explains Hasan.
Hasan gets most of his inspiration from the experiences he faces throughout his life. But there are quite a few photographers who have played a role in making Hasan the photographer he is by motivating and inspiring him. “Some of the Bangladeshi photographers who have influenced me are Hasan Chandan, Anwar Hossain, GMB Akash, Abir Abdullah, Munem Wasif, Andrew Biraj and so on. There are also a lot of foreign master photographers like Eugene Smith, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Sebastiao Salgado, Man Ray and more,” says Hasan.
Hasan is well known as an advertising and documentary photographer, but before he found his forte he experimented with everything that caught his interest. Hasan says, “I used to shoot anything I found. In fact, it helped me in exploring a wide variety of genres in photography.”
Currently working on a project called 'Dystopia', Hasan has no intention or plan of moving away from the field of photography. What he does plan on is to further and improve his style and take on new challenges. “My style in documentary photography is a continuation of classicalism or conventionalism from the past. The style and movement is rapidly changing, and there is always a hunger for new creation in terms of style, form, subject matter and presentation. I am in the process of exploration and experimentation on creating new visuals. I want to experiment with conceptual photography,” says Hasan.
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