It was a bit noisy in the museum. Some young volunteers had been romping here and there since morning. Wearing red t-shirt, they started to affix frames to the grey gallery walls in accordance of stories. Switches were on for all the yellow spectrum lights. Each story of the photography frame was displayed spontaneous on the reflection of the light. Some of them were about the gracefulness of nature, some were city talks or others to show us the curves of our livelihood. After a while audiences started visiting the festival. Aiming to the slogan-“Live A Life With Purpose” and “Photography is a love affair with life”, Help The Future had occurred fourth season of Shutter Light photo exhibition and three days fest from 29th October to 31st October 2019.
Mobile has become a device for universal now-a-days which is also used for photography. Through that, photography is found a hobby in vogue for the youth generation. Generally national photography festivals are arranged for the professional photographers with a long experience. So, ‘Shutter light’ is a national photography festival arranged by Help the Future only focused for the students of school, college and university to explore their photographic talent.
The founder of HTF, Mr. Saifullah Khaled said, ‘I am taking it from a very positive perspective that youth have intention to use devices for photography. I see a great possibility of glory in their eyes’. He also said that there were more than 1200 photos from all over the country. Judicial committee did thrice justifications of those twelve hundred photos for exhibition. And lastly 55 of them went for the final round or exhibited there. Mementoes are given in 2 groups. Ones are juniors from school and college and others from varsities or professional. Total 6 of them were given topper’s mementoes. Moreover there was a segment ‘From the perspective of audience’ where one will be gifted for largest number of votes in his/her photography from audience. All the owner of exhibited photographs were gifted t-shirts, badges, key ring and participant’s certificates. The eminent photographers, Mr. Pronob Ghosh and Mr. Imam Hasan were in judicial committee.
To explore the latent potentialities of youth in photography, ‘Shutter Light 4’ was successfully arranged by the project coordinator Mr. Noman Khan and the executive committee. The executive committee consists of 5 members and 25 well trained volunteers worked successfully under them in 4 different sectors. All of them are cordially thanked by us. To let us know about the moral situation of the fest, the chief organizers Mr. Shofiuzzaman Mahi and Mr. Intishar Mashuq told us that there were more than 500 audience each day. They also said that their expected audience were the students and guardians as that was a fest for the grownups. ‘All the term and board exams were upcoming then. But even we got audience as expected’.
Senior actor of Bangladesh film industry, Mrs. Dilara Zaman was the special guest there. International Cartoonist Morshed Mishu was also present as an honourable guest. Morever there was a segment named photography workshop presented by Sony Alpha Bangladesh. This workshop has taken by Mr. Abir Abdullah, principle of Pathshala. Which is the best photography school in Bangladesh. Also, there was Mr. Pallab official photographer of Sony Alpha Bangladesh as an instructor.
We saw a bit melancholia in the eyes of all executive members and volunteers at the last day of this fest. One of the volunteers Ms. Rabiya Meem said, ‘Aiming to this most expected festival, we tried a lot to make it best. Maybe audience seen a bunch of frames by only entering in the gallery. But there is lying infinity drops of sweat of each volunteer behind the scene. We have learnt a lot of practical things while working. We were in vicinity of many talented and successful persons. Three days of this festival were a journey of dreams costed by us. So, we get emotional at the end. We are preparing for home with an oath of presenting something new and more enchanting to the audience next time.
