Nasir Ali Mamun’s exhibition begins Thursday

A solo photography exhibition and launching of a book by Nasir Ali Mamun titled 'S. M. Sultan-The Cosmic Journey of a Fugitive' will be held in the city on Thursday, reports UNB.

The exhibition will be open to all till 5 October at La Galerie, Alliance Française de Dhaka.

Cultural affairs minister Asaduzzaman Noor is scheduled to attend the function as the chief guest while ambassador of France to Bangladesh Marie Annick Bourdin, ambassador of Italy to Bangladesh Mario Plama, eminent artist Monirul Islam and architect and artist Mustapha Khalid Palash will join the inaugural programme as special guests while professor Moinuddin Khaled will also remain present.

Over the span of a decade, Nasir Ali Mamun recorded the one-man journey of the 'fugitive' and bohemian painter SM Sultan - his pathos, darkness and struggle as he went about recreating on giant canvasses the essence of human spirit.

Mamun's camera chronicled Sultan's closeness to the common people and how he spoke for the people who had toiled through ages for the advancement of human civilisation.

A recluse in love with nature, Sultan's canvasses as well as surroundings and animals, birds and plants that he greatly cared for.

Through these photographs Mamun tried to immortalise that inner spirit of Sultan who adroitly shunned publicity and lived hermetically at his native village in Narail, revealing many hidden and obscure faces of the master painter's cosmic journey.

Dedicated to Shilpacharya Zainul Abedin, the exhibition titled 'S. M. Sultan - The Cosmic Journey of a Fugitive' will showcase these historic and iconic photographs, said a press release on Tuesday.

Nasir Ali Mamun spent ten years in pursuit of the elusive artist and recorded in his frame, the contemplative emotion of the artist, as he went about recreating on giant canvases the essence of the human spirit and its emancipation.

As the celebrated founder of portrait photography in Bangladesh, Nasir Ali Mamun is best known for his extraordinary and soul-searing portraits of celebrities from a diverse background, including arts and politics.

Working exclusively in black and white, his body of work from 1972 onwards has been described as 'capturing rare moments of rarer human beings in a spirit of discovery, providing a facial history of creative souls.'

The photography book 'SM Sultan-The Cosmic Journey of a Fugitive' is sponsored by Delvistaa Foundation.