Nasir Ali Mamun’s 66th solo show at the Alliance Française de Dhaka’s La Galerie unfolds less as a presentation and more as an encounter with memory, a segment of Bengali literary history, and the quiet interiority of two defining poetic voices of Bangladesh.

 

As a signature, Mamun’s camera has long resisted spectacle. Working in clean, unadorned frames, he isolates his subjects from distraction, allowing light and shadow to express what language cannot. His portraits of Shamsur Rahman and Al Mahmud, presented in a series of images and video clips, exemplify this style at its most sophisticated. In Mamun’s art, the individual assumes both surface and depth—an entry into cognition, memory, and presence.

 

 

Rahman appears as expected: calm, contemplative, and somewhat reticent. Mamun’s use of monochrome does not dramatize but rather emphasizes the poet’s presence. These portraits carry a suspended quality, as if the act of thinking has been momentarily held in place. Rahman emerges not just as a poet, but also as a moral and intellectual witness to his era.

 

Al Mahmud exudes a distinct intensity that Mamun does not attempt to soften or beautify; instead, he captures it as it is, where dignity and solitude coexist within his frames. These photographs go beyond documentation to provide a visual representation of a multifaceted literary and political presence.

 

 

The exhibition also recalls an important historical event: Rahman and Mahmud’s meeting in 2004, arranged by Mamun after years of separation between the two poets. That encounter, preserved through visuals, is echoed here as an archival confluence.

 

Framed in various contexts—from intriguing individual portraits to the two poets in the same room and the display of other archival elements—the photographic exhibition on these two legendary Bengali poets does more than record; it constructs a space where discourse, memory, and history continue to unfold.

 

Titled “Photoseum: Life of Poetree,” the exhibition will run until April 16, 2026, from 3 to 9 pm every day.


Photo Credit: Anandita Khan