Bangladesh’s first vertical panoramic exhibition

"Stand Up Dhaka" is Bangladesh's first-ever vertical panoramic exhibition. It showcases the living chaos experienced by city dwellers.

Bashir Ahmed Sujan's solo panoramic photography exhibition "Darao Dhaka" (Stand Up Dhaka) began on May 13 at La Gallerie, Alliance Française de Dhaka, Dhanmondi. A book of the same name was also launched at the event. 

Bashir Ahmed Sujan

Khondoker Mostafizur Rahman, Director General, Bangladesh National Museum graced the inaugural ceremony as the chief guest. Eminent photographer Nasir Ali Mamun was also present at the event as the special guest. Francois Grosjean, Director, Alliance Française de Dhaka, and architect Nurur Rahman Khan attended the event as the guests of honour.

Photos: Sheikh Mehedi Morshed

"Stand Up Dhaka" is Bangladesh's first-ever vertical panoramic exhibition. It showcases the living chaos experienced by city dwellers. The images have been presented in such a way that it resembles the cityscapes of one of the biggest and busiest metropolises in the world, Dhaka.

Photographer Bashir Ahmed Sujan has been working on this project for almost 15 years now.

Photos: Sheikh Mehedi Morshed

"I have worked with a Hasselblad XPan, a manual panoramic film camera, to capture the diversities of city life through my lens,' said the photographer who processes his photographs manually and even converts them into digital formats himself. "It is not easy working to capture a vertical panoramic shot as the framing needs to be set perfectly."

This exhibition has been organised by Duniyadari Archive and curated by Amirul Rajiv and Naim Ul Hasan. Rajiv emphasised on how various photos shot at different times coincides with each other in paired frames.

Photos: Sheikh Mehedi Morshed

"The photos are presented in multiple series of diptychs and triptychs (an artwork made up of 2-3 panels)," shares the curator. "The shadows on the walls represent the landscape of buildings and monuments in Dhaka. Each picture highlights the similarities and contrasts while creating an unconscious yet a spontaneous sense of harmony."

The exhibition is open till May 21 from 3 pm to 9 pm, except Sundays.