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to doandsayall thethings Idid before.” Within
days of hisrelease,hewascampaigningforfree
andfairelections, thoughwhenthecountrywent
to thepollsonDecember 30lastyear,Sheikh
Hasinaretainedher mandateamidreports of
ballot-riggingandintimidation.
Thatsamemonth,Alamwas amongthe
journalistsnamedbyTimemagazineas their
collectivePersonof theYear.Lackinggovernment
or corporate support–“it is riskyfor peopleto
beassociatedwithus,” hesays –theChobiMela
festivalneverthelesswentaheadasscheduledin
Februaryto packedvenuesandcriticalacclaim.
Nextmonth,theRubinMuseuminNewYork will
mountTruth to Power,thefirstUSretrospective of
hiswork.Anewbook,TheTide WillTurn,includes
anexchangebetweenAlamandthenovelist
Arundhati Roy, whopublishedamovingopen
letter to himwhile hewasin prison.
Legally, Alamis stillin limbo. In August,the
supremecourtupheldastayontheinvestigation;
nevertheless,his fileremainsopen.Hewould
liketosee more of hispeers challengeHasina’s
regime.“Except forafewnotable exceptions,
both themediaandthemajor cultural players
have chosentoremainsilent, or become
mouthpiecesfor thegovernment,” henotes.
Yethetakes hopefromthecourageof“theyouth
of Bangladesh, whocontinueto resist”.
Meanwhile,heis reapingcreative benefits
fromstandingupto hisoppressors.Aftermonths
in jailwithoutacamera,hewants to discover
“newmethods”oftellingstories. “Howdoyou
photographwhenthecamera is missing?”
hemuses. Thelightinhis eyes suggestshe’ll
findaway.The Prix Pictetexhibition “Hope”isatthe V&A
Museum, London, November14-December 8;
vam.ac.uk. “Shahidul Alam: Truth to Power” is at the
RubinMuseum, New York,November8-May42020;
rubinmuseum.org‘Womaninballotbooth’(1991)fromtheseries‘AStruggle forDemocracy’(ongoing), whichchronicledthepopular
resistancetoGeneralErshad,Bangladesh’s presidentfrom 1983 to 1990‘BangladeshimigrantworkersintheMaldives’(1994)
fromtheseries‘MigrantSoul’(ongoing)