The 11th edition of the Chobi Mela photography festival has opened in Dhaka, Bangladesh, under the curatorial direction of artists Munem Wasif and Sarker Protick. With the theme 'Re,' the festival presents work from 58 artists across nine exhibitions, aiming to explore renewal and tenacity in lens-based storytelling following the disruptions of the COVID-19 pandemic and the July 2024 uprising.
The festival matters as a significant cultural event that uses photography to probe urgent global and local narratives of resistance and identity. Works like Ritual Inhabitual's 'Oro Verde,' documenting an Indigenous community's fight in Mexico, and Kazi Sharowar Hussain and Gitartha Goswami's 'Songs of the Shore,' on the Miya Muslims of Assam, move beyond passive documentation to actively challenge oppressive structures, positioning the festival as a platform for politically engaged image-making in a challenging urban environment.