I first became aware of Rashid Talukder at a show I wrote about here in 2008, ‘Bangladesh 1971‘ at Autograph, documenting the birth of that nation. His work in that show was outstanding and made me want to know more about him, and I found over 90 images on Majority World which confirmed my admiration for him. It was a vew further strengthened by his seeing his pictures again in Where Three Dreams Cross, 150 Years of Photography from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, shown at the Whitechapel Art Gallery in 2010.
You can read a long and loving obituary of this man, the ‘elder brother’ of Bangladesh photography, in Shahidul Alam’s The light we failed to see, which gives a real insight into the man as well as the problems he faced as a photographer in Bangladesh. Alam, who co-curated both of the shows mentioned, has written a moving piece on his friend and colleague that deserves to be read in full, so I won’t quote from it, just urge you to read it, to take a long look at Talukder’s photographs and to be prepared to rethink some of your preconceptions about the history of photography.
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Naomi Rosenblum‘s ‘A World History of Photography’, first published in 1984 was at the time a ground-breaking volume, and one that I seized on with delight for my teaching as it began to open our eyes to some of the things that had happened outside of the USA and Western Europe (and also for some of her insights into New York photography of which she and in particular her husband Walter Rosenblum had been such an important part) , but we can now see there was so much ground it left unexplored.
Nina and Naomi Rosenblum at the Walter Rosenblum show in Bielsko-Biala
Perhaps what we now need is a ‘Majority World History of Photography’ which would tell us more of that story.