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to do and sayall thethingsIdid before.” Within
days of hisrelease, he wascampaigning forfree
and fair elections, though whenthe countrywent
to thepollsonDecember 30 lastyear,Sheikh
Hasinaretainedher mandate amidreports of
ballot-rigging and intimidation.
That same month, Alamwas among the
journalists namedbyTime magazine as their
collectivePerson of theYear.Lacking government
or corporate support–“it is riskyfor people to
beassociatedwith us,” he says –the ChobiMela
festivalneverthelesswentaheadasscheduledin
February to packedvenuesand critical acclaim.
Nextmonth, theRubin MuseuminNewYork will
mountTruth toPower,the firstUSretrospective of
hiswork.Anewbook,TheTide WillTurn,includes
anexchangebetweenAlam and the novelist
ArundhatiRoy, who publishedamoving open
letter to him while he was in prison.
Legally, Alam is still in limbo. In August,the
supreme courtupheldastayonthe investigation;
nevertheless,his fileremains open.Hewould
liketosee more of hispeers challenge Hasina’s
regime. “Except forafew notableexceptions,
both the media and the major cultural players
have chosentoremain silent, or become
mouthpiecesfor the government,” he notes.
Yethetakes hopefromthe courageof“theyouth
of Bangladesh, who continue toresist”.
Meanwhile, he isreapingcreative benefits
from standing up to hisoppressors.Aftermonths
in jailwithoutacamera, he wants to discover
“new methods”oftelling stories. “Howdoyou
photographwhen the camera is missing?”
he muses. Thelightinhis eyes suggests he’ll
findaway.The Prix Pictetexhibition “Hope”isat the V&A
Museum, London,November14-December 8;
vam.ac.uk.“ShahidulAlam: Truth toPower” is at the
RubinMuseum,New York,November8-May42020;
rubinmuseum.org‘Womanin ballotbooth’(1991)fromthe series‘AStruggleforDemocracy’(ongoing), which chronicled the popular
resistance toGeneralErshad, Bangladesh’s president from 1983 to 1990‘Bangladeshi migrantworkers in theMaldives’(1994)
from the series‘Migrant Soul’(ongoing)