The New Nation - Internet Edition

Sheikh Arif Bulbon

Mexican photographer Pedro Meyer is one of the pioneers and most recognised representatives of contemporary photography. He is recognised widely both for his provocative and powerful images and his pioneering work in the digital imaging era. The photographs of Meyer consistently question the limits between truth, fiction and reality. With the advent of digital technologies in early 90's, Meyer evolved from a documentary photographer, who created what is known as 'direct images,' to a digital documentary maker, who combines elements of different photographs to reach a higher or different truth.

The project 'Heresies' is a retrospective of one of the most innovative artists of the world, comprising five decades of photographic work. His famous statement is "Every photograph, either digitally manipulated or not, is both truth and fiction, has earned him being called a 'Heretic' in the orthodox world of documentary photography."

A series of exhibitions titled 'Heresies: a retrospective by Pedro Meyer' will open simultaneously in nearly 60 museums around the world this month and it will be a major breakthrough in the way photographic work is exhibited. As a part of the shows in Bangladesh a photography exhibition of Pedro Meyer titled 'Heresies' was inaugurated at the Drik Gallery in the city on October 8.

Dr Shahidul Alam, photographer and Managing Director of Drik Picture Library, inaugurated the show as chief guest.

This exhibition was curated from more than 300,000 images - both 'analog' and digital - nearly 2,500 documents regarding the professional career of Pedro Meyer. These were then uploaded and cross-referenced according to 20 different themes so that researchers and photographers could use them for their curatorships to produce digital galleries.

The gallery remain opens for all till October 20 from 3:00pm to 8:00pm everyday.

Pedro Meyer was the founder and president of the 'Consejo Mexicano de Fotografía' (Mexican Council of Photography) and organiser of the first three Latin American Photography Colloquiums. Besides his artistic photographic work, Pedro Meyer has been a teacher in various prestigious institutions, as well as the curator, editor, founder and director of the renowned photography website 'ZoneZero,' which hosts the work of over a thousand photographers from all over the world, and is visited by more than 500,000 people each month. More than 5.5 million people visited 'ZoneZero' in one year making it one of most visited sites for content on the web. His work has been presented in more than 200 exhibitions in museums and galleries all over the world and is part of very important permanent collections that include: The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, The Victoria and Albert Museum in London, The Musee National D'art Moderne Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, The International Centre of Photography also in New York, George Eastman House in Rochester, New York, The California Museum of Photography, in Riverside, The Centre for Creative Photography in Tucson, Arizona, Casa de Las Américas, Havana, Cuba, Centro Studie e Archivo della Comunicasione dell' Universitá of Parma, Italy, and Comuna di Anghiari, Palazzo Pretorio, Italy amongst others.