Page 473 - Art and Crafts of Bangladesh

470 ART AND CRAFTS

9.5 Organizations of Photojournalists
Bangladesh Photo Academy
In 1972 with the encouragement and patronage of the then Prime Minister
Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the photojournalists of Bangladesh were
united organizationally and the ‘Bangladesh Photo Academy’ was established for the
welfare of photojournalists. 116 The aim of the Academy was providing assistance to
photojournalists in necessity besides education, skill development, and various
development activities. However, this Academy did not last for very long.
Bangladesh Photojournalist Association (BPJA)
In 1985 all the senior and junior photojournalists of almost all newspapers combined
to form the Bangladesh Photojournalist Association with the intention of ridding
various obstacles, facing crises and thus, looking after their own interests. The
renowned photojournalist Rashid Talukder was its founding convener. This
organization has advanced amidst multiple successes and failures with the passage of
time. Branches have been formed under it in various divisional and district towns.
BPJA has organized training and workshops in various district towns including Dhaka
on basic photography and photojournalism to improve the standard of
photojournalists. In 1999 this association was successful in arranging a round table
meeting with all concerned on the subject of professional drawbacks and
development. A list of recommendations with the consent of all participants was
drawn up as a proposal from this meeting which was circulated to different offices. 117
Bangladesh Photojournalist Forum
In 1997 a group of young members left the organization due to a number of complaints
and formed ‘Bangladesh Photojournalist Forum’ as an alternative to BPJA. Pavel
Rahman was its founding president and Azizur Rahim Peu its founding general
secretary. This organization is largely inactive at present.
9.6 Photojournalism: Evolution of Technology
10.56 In the early fifties, at the initial stages of photojournalism pictures were printed in line
Photograph Farzana block in newspapers. In 1954 pictures were printed in half tone block through ‘Eastern
Khan Godhuli
© Farzana Khan Godhuli Type Foundry.’ Pictures printed in these processes were low in quality. In 1962 the
English daily Observer began to be printed
in rotary offset machine. Thus printing
became simple and quality of pictures
improved. In 1965 Observer printed the first
color picture and in the same year Saptahik
Chitrali began to be printed with colored
pictures on the first and last pages. From
1990 almost all leading newspapers started
to print colored pictures. The early
photographers used TLR cameras with 120