Street Photography nominee

City parks are places for refreshment. People come here to seek solitude and breathe fresh air – indeed it gives urban people a sense of openness. With the rapid urbanization of Dhaka city, greenery is diminishing day by day. The city has a burden of more than twenty million people most of them migrated here for opportunities. The fate of existence of vegetation and natural water reservoirs are determined by powerful people – corruption and lack of good governance are the causes. Public parks, open spaces and playgrounds around the city are the only resorts for the general people. A few of these parks are the floating slums fraught with unhygienic conditions and diseases. The flora of Dhaka is totally threatened by desperate urbanization and industrialization. Areas with extensive vegetation are not only the source of oxygen but also helps prevent air pollution as well as maintain ecological balance by providing refuge for birds and stray animals. The city has already been declared as the most unlivable city in the world. It is important to decentralize the city of Dhaka as well as to increase the number of parks and other recreation facilities to save the city from any impending disaster.

Mohammad Rakibul Hasan is a documentary photographer and conceptual artist based in Dhaka, Bangladesh represented by Redux Pictures, USA. Hasan holds a Post Graduate Diploma in Photojournalism from Ateneo de Manila University and also graduated in Film & Video Production from UBS Film School at the University of Sydney. He was nominated for the Joop Swart Masterclass, UNICEF Photo of the Year, short listed in the Ian Parry scholarship, Sony World Photography Awards in professional category, finalist in Contemporary Talents Competition organized by Foundation Francois Schneider as well as achieved several accolades in the field of photography worldwide. His work has been published in numerous international magazines and exhibited in several countries. He was commissioned for many international organizations and worked in overseas. He is currently studying Certificate in Art History, a hybrid online on-campus program at the University of Oxford.