Drik Picture Library
Drik Picture Library Ltd. is a picture library based in Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Background
Drik Picture Library was set up by Bangladeshi writer and photographer Shahidul Alam and Bangladeshi writer and anthropologist Rahnuma Ahmed that has been awarded a grant by the Prince Claus Fund. The agency was set up in 1989 to provide a platform for local photographers in the majority world.Drik is Sanskrit for vision. Drik has gone on to provide media services that include web development, video production, print production and exhibitions. In 1998 it set up Pathshala, the South Asian Institute of Photography, and Chobi Mela, the first festival of photography in Asia. Drik uses new media extensively in its activism and introduced email to Bangladesh in the early nineties. It also set up Banglarights, the Bangladesh Human Rights Network, and DrikNews, independent news that extensively uses citizen journalism. More recently, Drik set up Majority World, an unprecedented photo library and agency set up to promote the work of photographers from the Global South and to promote Fair Trade Photography. It is headquartered in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, but also has branch offices in India and the UK.
