Today 4 November, I am with Joumana El Zein Khoury, Executive Director, World Press Photo Foundation after discussion on the topic of ‘Photography for Impact – Responding to the changing world’ moderated by Shahidul Alam one of my photographic teacher and Managing Director, Drik Picture Library.
To me it’s a really thoughtful talks which is helpful for practicing photojournalism nowadays.
This event is organised as part of the Dhaka tour of World Press Photo 2022 exhibition. Thanks to Drik, for such a beautiful arrangement.
Finally, I congratulate to John Stanmeyer for his beautiful and brilliant picture, to get awarded the WORLD PRESS PHOTO of the year,to me it’s appear in a new look with a great notice and message, thanks to approach this kind of work to us, and thanks to the World Press Photo to Honor him . . .
Caption: African migrants on the shore of Djibouti city at night, raising their phones in an attempt to capture an inexpensive signal from neighboring Somalia—a tenuous link to relatives abroad. Djibouti is a common stop-off point for migrants in transit from such countries as Somalia, Ethiopia and Eritrea, seeking a better life in Europe and the Middle East.
Humbled. Honored. Speechless. Thank you to all for your kind words.
Have been asked countless times today what this photograph, Signal, means to me. While standing on the shores of the Red Sea that evening in Djibouti City, it felt as if I was photographing all of us — you, me, our brothers and sisters — all desperately trying to connect to our loved ones. In this tenuous period of human migration where despair and hope simultaneously intertwine, we seek to find comfort, a sense of balance, a desire to be home, reconnecting to something stable, reassuring. This photograph of Somalis trying to “catch” a signal is an image of all of us as we stand at the crossroads of humanity, where we must ask ourselves what is truly important, demanding our collective attention in a global society where the issues of migration, borders, war, poverty, technology and communication intersect.
MONIRUL ALAM 