Sarker Protick
Sarker Protick (Bengali: সরকার প্রতিক) is a Bangladeshi photographer and visual artist.[1][2]
Sarker Protick | |
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![]() Protick in 2014 | |
Born | 1986 (age 36–37) Dhaka, Bangladesh |
Nationality | Bangladeshi |
Occupation(s) | Photojournalist, teacher |
Years active | 2011–present |
Known for | Photography |
Website | www |
Life and work
Protick is a lecturer at Pathshala-South Asian Media Institute and co-curator at Chobi Mela International Photography Festival. He is a former member of the VII Photo Agency and is represented by East Wing Gallery.
He was chosen by the British Journal of Photography as 'One to watch' in 2014.[3]
Publications
Joint publication
- Astres Noirs. Chose Commune, 2016. With Katrin Koenning.[4] ISBN 978-2-9548777-2-3. Edition of 1500 copies.
- Second, augmented edition with different cover. Chose Commune, 2017. ISBN 979-10-96383-03-0. Edition of 1500 copies.
Contributions to publications
- Under the Banyan Tree. South Asian Media Academy, 2011. Catalogue of images by 15 photographers from Pathshala in Bangladesh. ISBN 9789843334442. Includes In Midnight Black by Protick.
Reception
The book Astres Noirs was the result of Protick distributing his work using social media. On Instagram, Protick in Bangladesh and Koenning in Australia shared hundreds of photographs. Co-directors of publishers Chose Commune, Cécile Poimboeuf-Koizumi and Vasantha Yogananthan, following the two artists on social networks, noticed artistic affinities in dialogue that banished distance. In their studio in Paris, far removed from Bangladesh and Australia, they developed a book concept that replicated the illumination of the mobile phone screen and its constant flow of imagery;
On black paper the pages [are] printed in silver ink with traces of a harsh and blinding light originally generated by the smartphone. Thus, the light of the images is not white, but a metallic gray, paradoxically evoking the essential material of film photography: silver salt. From an all-digital universe, the photographs of Protick and Koenning retain the luminance of the screen thanks to the unusual printing process that transforms them into a malleable material from which the photographic narrative is constructed. Bound in a sort of Japanese fold (each of the pages is double, folded on itself from the top), the book is punctuated with "hidden" images, printed on the inside of the fold.[5]
As José Alberto Caro Díaz expresses it;
German photographer Katrin Koenning and Bangladesh-based photographer Sarker Protick collaborate despite distance. This work represents photographs taken with a mobile phone camera, capturing the ordinary like a drop of water or a ray of light, and transforming it, discovering an unexplored world [and] show a passion for the world that surrounds them.[6]
The New Yorker reviewed Protick's What Remains, noting that it was made over a year of return visits "to learn how his grandparents felt as they confronted old age," and for which he developed a overexposed high key technique.[1] The British Journal of Photography identifies the photographer's "emptiness of his compositions and their minimalist colour palette alluding to loss," in discussing the series in their 2014 issue "Ones to Watch";
What Remains is a touching portrait of a Bangladeshi couple, shot in the last weeks of the woman's life by her grandson, Sarker Protick, who brings a subtle hand and economy of style to a difficult and very personal subject; the emptiness of his compositions and their minimalist colour palette alluding to loss in place of a strict narrative.[3]
Manik Katyal, founder of Emaho Magazine, describes Protick's adaptability and intuitive approach when intending to photograph Bangladesh's largest waterway, the Padma, but on discovering how erosion of the river's shore disadvantaged the communities that live beside and depend on the river for their livelihoods, he made that his subject;
Of River and Lost Lands deals with an important subject to present to a wider audience, as it lacks visibility in Bangladesh. He uses photography in a decidedly unsettling manner [in dealing with loss][3]
Exhibitions
- Dhaka Art Summit 2023[7]
- Chobi Mela VII International Photography Festival, 2013[3]
- Festival of Promenades Photographiques Vendome 2012 & 2013, France[8]
- Noorderlicht Photo festival 2012, Netherlands[3]
- Tokyo Month of Photography 2013[3]
- Of River and Lost Lands, Photography Oxford festival, 2014[9]
![](../I/To_Enter_the_Sky_-_Protick_Sarker.jpg.webp)
Awards
- 2012: Prix Mark Grosset pour les écoles internationales de photographie, France[10]
- 2012: Winner of World Bank Art Program, US[10]
- 2014: 'Ones to Watch' – (featured), British Journal of Photography, UK[3]
- 2014: Selected to participate in World Press Photo Joop Swart Master class, Netherlands[11]
- 2015: Photo District News's 30 Emerging Photographers[12]
- 2015: World Press Photo Award (for the story "What Remains")[13][14][15]
- 2019: Light Work Artist Residency, Syracuse NY.[16]
See also
References
- Fussell, Genevieve. "Sarker Protick's 'What Remains'". The New Yorker.
- "Vanishing Act: The Disappearing Banks of the Padma River". Photography. April 17, 2014.
- Bainbridge, Simon (January 6, 2014). "BJP's Ones to Watch in 2014 unveiled". British Journal of Photography. Retrieved December 13, 2014.
- "Astres Noirs". GUP Magazine. 20 September 2016. Retrieved 2021-08-19.
- Translation of excerpt from Perreault, L. (2017). "Review of Sarker Protick et Katrin Koenning, Astres noirs, Chose commune, Paris, 2016, 168 pages, 91 photographs." Ciel variable, (106), 94–94.
- Caro Díaz, José A. (June 2019). El Silencio de la Oscuridad: Inmersión en las Bodegas vivas de Chiclana de la Frontera, thesis for the Degree in Fundamentals of Architecture, Universidad de Sevilla, Higher Technical School of Architecture of Seville. Seville, Spain: Universidad de Sevilla. p. 13.
- https://www.dhakaartsummit.org/
- "Promenades photographiques de Vendôme". Promenades Photographiques.
- "Photography Oxford festival 2014 – in pictures". The Guardian. September 26, 2014.
- "Talking Images". The Daily Star. March 22, 2014.
- "Sarker Protick on Joop Swart Masterclass 2014". Daily Sun. Archived from the original on July 19, 2014.
- "PDN's 30 2015: New and Emerging Photographers to Watch". Photo District News. Archived from the original on 26 February 2015.
- "2015 Sarker Protick DLS2-AJ". World Press Photo.
- "Sarker Protick bring home World Press Photo Award". The Daily Star. February 19, 2015.
- "Sarker Protick wins World Press Photo Award". Dhaka Tribune. February 18, 2015.
- "Announcing the 2019 Light Work Artists-in-Residence". Light Work (Press release). 13 September 2018. Retrieved 30 December 2021.