Sayeeda Khanam, the first female professional photographer of Bangladesh, has died at the age of 83.
Published : 18 Aug 2020, 10:20 AM
She breathed her last at her Banani home at 3 am on Tuesday, her family friend and film activist Munira Morshed Munni told bdnews24.com.
“Sayeeda Apa suddenly fell down the day before yesterday and subsequently stopped speaking. She also had kidney problems.”
She will be laid to rest at the capital's Banani graveyard after Zuhr prayers on Tuesday, Munni said citing Sayeeda’s family.
State Minister for Cultural Affairs KM Khalid has expressed his condolences over the death of Sayeeda.
Sayeeda was born in Pabna on Dec 29, 1937. She started her career in photojournalism in the early 60s through working for the then ‘Begum’ magazine.
She had received plenty of support from her elder sister Hamida Khanam on her way to becoming a professional photographer. Sayeeda was given a Rolleicord camera, used by professionals at the time, by her sister which she had brought back from a trip to the US.
While pursuing two master’s degrees in Bangla Literature and Library Science at Dhaka University, she started capturing time, people, history and narratives with her camera.
The pictures taken by Sayeeda of the training of women freedom fighters in the liberation struggle of Bangladesh is now a part of the country’s history.
From 1974 to 1986, Sayeeda worked as a librarian in the seminar library of the Bangla department of Dhaka University.
Her pictures were published in various newspapers, including The Daily Observer, The Morning News and Ittefaq.
Sayeeda participated in Dhaka international exhibition in 1956. In the same year, she received an international award in Germany. Her photographs have been exhibited in several countries, including India, Japan, France, Sweden, Pakistan, Cyprus and the US.
She was the first person from Bangladesh to interview Satyajit Ray which was published in Chitrali in 1962.
Sayeeda participated in various international conferences with her photographs and had won many awards. She also held a solo exhibition with the pictures of Satyajit Ray and Mother Teresa.
During her long photojournalism career, about 3,000 of her photos got published. Sayeeda also had an interest in writing. Many of her short stories, novels, essays and interviews have been published in various magazines.
Sayeeda was a general member of Bangladesh Mahila Samity and a life member of Bangla Academy.
She inaugurated the photography related website click.bdnews24.com in 2014 during the eighth anniversary of bdnews24.com.
In 2019, the government awarded her ‘Ekushey Padak’ for her contribution to photography.