‘The regret won’t go’

As a photographer, she has to her credit pictures of personalities such as Queen Elizabeth II, Mother Teresa, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, and Neil Armstrong, but she is unable to come to terms with her inability to photograph the events just before Bangladesh’s independence.

Shameema Binte Rahmanbdnews24.com
Published : 22 Oct 2014, 05:50 PM
Updated : 22 Oct 2014, 08:27 PM

Sayeda Khanam, Bangladesh’ first professional female photographer, now 77, regretted not being able to take pictures of the pre-independence events as she spoke to bdnews24.com.

“Do you know the pain? I could not photograph (the events) of the day when Pakistani army surrendered in 1971 because of gunshots.”

Khanam and renowned photographer Anwar Hossain will inaugurate bdnews24.com’s photo-portal – click.bdnews24.com – on Thursday.

She will also unveil a five-day exhibition of selected bdnews24.com photos titled ‘capturing bangladesh’ at Radius Art Gallery in Dhaka’s Gulshan, marking the eighth founding anniversary of bdnews24.com.

Khanam’s brother-in-law (sister’s husband) and renowned historian Prof AF Salahuddin Ahmed was supposed to inaugurate the event. After his sudden death, bdnews24.com approached Khanam and she agreed to be with bdnews24.com.

She recollected the past events.

Khanam, born on Dec 29, 1937 in Pabna, was fond of the camera since she was only 12 and she started her career as a photojournalist in the 60s with periodical ‘Begum’.

She was always encouraged to be a professional photojournalist by her elder sister Hamida Khanam, the wife of Prof Ahmed.

Hamida Khanam, who was the founding principal of Dhaka’s Home Economics College, brought her from the US a Rolleicord camera, which was used by professional photographers at that time.

She started photographing people, their life, and historic events while pursuing her Master’s in Bangla Literature and in Library Science.

Khanam’s pictures on the combat training of female freedom fighters during the Liberation War had found their place in the history.

She started for Racecourse Ground, now Suhrawardy Udyan, on Dec 16, 1071 to photograph Pakistani army’s surrender, but did not succeed.

“We were three women and I was holding the camera. We encountered bullets while going to Ramna Race Course ground from Azimpur residence. They were the bullets of Pakistani army...We lay down on the ground. We returned home jumping over big walls of three houses after the firing stopped,” she added.

“The sadness for not being able to photograph the events would never go.”

Khanam recalled her experience of taking the photo of Indian movie maestro Satyajit Ray.

She went to Ray’s house ignoring cine-magazine Chitrali’s Editor SM Parvez.

“...I believed the director who can make ‘Pather Panchali’ cannot ignore the request of one coming from Bangladesh to interview him,” she added.

Khanam was the first Bangladeshi to interview Ray. It was published in 1962.

She attended numerous international conferences and won a number of awards.

Around 3,000 snapshots taken by Khanam during his long career have been published.

Her short stories, novels, articles and interviews were published in different newspapers.

Khanam is a life-time member of Bangladesh Mohila Samity and Bangla Academy.