In conversation with photographer Tarek Mahmud.

In conversation with TAREK MAHMUD, a 28 year young landscape and documentary photographer from Dhaka, Bangladesh.
He did his graduation in Computer Science and Engineering. He is working as a documentary photographer of North American Humanitarian Aid and Relief (NAHAR) . He is also the head of media of social agency for welfare and advertisement in Bangladesh .

What is your genre of photography?

I started photography as my hobby. Landscaping is always my favorite.
I am capturing landscape and lifestyle of Bangladesh for almost 8 years now.
As a professional, I work as a documentary photographer which is also kind of related with lifestyle photography. This are the two main sectors I work the most .

Tell us about your camera and lens you generally use for photography.

The camera and lens are not always fixed for me . I shoot whatever I have in my hand. Whether it is a telephoto lens, or a mobile phone, it hardly matters.
Sometimes I use my 70-200 lens to capture some tight landscape too.
I basically use 2 different setups, one is from canon, with a 35mm 1.8, a 17-40 f/4, and a 70-200 f2.8 , along with a sony A7Riii with 85mm 1.4 for portraits.
I also use my iphone for landscapes.

Which is your favorite photography destination ?

I love landscape and rural lifestyle, that’s why villages have been my favorite place to shoot always. If you travel in villages, you will be able to shoot thousands of photos in different genre and subject. Also , you will learn a lot about culture of that area.
Even villages have there own culture, I love to explore them . I love to learn from them, I love to communicate with people and I love to capture the awesome views of rural areas including water, land, farms , cattles & boats etc. I love rural areas basically.

Do you have any favorite book / magazine on photography?

Sadly I am not concerned about photography magazines , I am habituated with photographic websites like national geographic, Your shot, Flicker , 500pix , and few flicker groups, facebook groups now a days.

Any particular Bangladeshi photographer you follow?

As I love to introduce myself as a landscaper, here in Bangladesh we do not have any legend or senior photographer who used to capture landscape a lot . Most of Bangladeshi photographers were focused on lifestyle, news /photojournalism, portraits etc. But now, situation is changing, new comers are working on various sectors like landscape, aerial photography,nature, wildlife etc .

I do like works of other photographers around the world. If u ask me any specific name, I will say Bobby Joshi from india, he is an amazing landscaper.

What does it take to be a good photographer?

What I believe, you need to love it, when you love your work , when you love to do something, you will be passionate about it, you will do hard work to learn and apply it .
Anyone who wants to be a “good” photographer, he needs to learn how camera works, how photography works, how to use light perfectly, if u want to know all these things, you need to study, and you need to click, you need both at the same time.You have to learn a lot, you have to click a lot.

Do you have a favorite photograph? Tell us why?

Every single click I have taken in my life is my favorite . Images are like kids to me . If I don’t like something I do not click. I don’t have any specific favorite photo.

Which colours grabs your eye’s attention first?

The color of sunset and after the sunset, the blue hour attracts me the most.

Tell us about photography culture in Bangladesh.

Most of Bangladeshi photographers were focused on lifestyle, news /photojournalism, portraits etc. there is a reason for that, reason is , in Bangladesh people do not buy landscape or lifestyle photographs.
You only have to wait for awards and competitions, but we also need money to run our daily life, that’s why in earlier years, photographers were focused on news /photojournalism cause it helped them in earning.

But now, situation is changing, new comers are working on various sectors like wedding, landscape, aerial photography, nature, wildlife etc .

Wedding photography is now a good sector for new comers to earn money, and also digital social media and photo sharing websites are helping photographers to sell their photos online .
Corporate , documentary photography, industrial photography is also getting popular among the new comers because demands of photos on these sectors are increasing day by day .