A photography exhibition on Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR), the first ever in Bangladesh was held in the capital on Sunday to raise awareness on disaster preparedness.
Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) and SEEDS Asia, a Japan-based organisation, organized the exhibition followed by a competition, launched last November titled “Tell Us Your Story” that was open to professionals and amateurs.
A total of 50 distinguished selected photographs on different topics related to disaster were exhibited along with 28 photographs from a leading Japanese daily newspaper, Kobe Shimbun, at the three-day exhibition at the art gallery of Bishwo Sahitto Kendro.
A panel of judges, headed by Professor Golam Rahman, selected the photographs for the exhibition out of around 250 entries in the competition.
Out of the exhibited photographs, 10 were awarded as the best selected photographs according to the jury board.
DNCC Panel Mayor M Osman Gani distributed the award crest and certificate to the winners at an award ceremony on the final day of the exhibition on Sunday.
The best photographs of the competition will also be exhibited in Japan later this year.
The Bangladeshi photographs were exhibited under six different themes – urban life, environment, urban flooding, pollution, fire and resilience. The Japanese photographs featured devastation and post disaster resilience of Great Hanshin Awaji Earthquake that hit Kobe city of Japan in 1995.
Visiting editor of Kobe Shimbun, Takayuki Naganuma, exchanged Japanese media experience with Bangladeshi journalists about media role and disaster preparedness.
Prof Abdullah Abu Sayed, Senior representative of JICA, Hitashi Are, renowned photo artist Shahidul Haq and DNCC chief town planner Tariq, also spoke on the occasion.
SEEDS Asia Managing Director, Yuko Nakagawa, said the aim of the event is to create public awareness through the capture of moments of innovative risk preparedness practices.
“Photographs can be used as an effective tool to aware people on disaster preparedness. A single photograph can tell such a story that can awake thousands of people to take necessary action against calamities,” she added.
SEEDS Asia is a foremost DRR implementing organisation based in Kobe, Japan. It has a respected international experience in the Asia Pacific region with a special focus on strengthening urban resilience, community participation and DRR research.
