Samsul Alam Helal is a photographer based in Dhaka, Bangladesh. He completed his graduation in photography from Pathshala South Asian Media Institute. His recent work Love Studio depicts the portraits of a working-class community where an old studio in Dhaka transforms into a neighborhood venue to represent the dreams, hopes and desires of the factory workers, their families and unemployed neighbors. In another portrait series on Hijra (transgender community), the camera homes in on the unfolding drama, nothing but a short razzmatazz, that reads like a narrative, and exotic hieroglyphic as the protagonists represented make dancing and singing for an absent audience, or as an end in itself. Helal love to make fiction to question the reality. His aim is to go beyond the socio-cultural and political issues which are primary interests. He explores identity, dreams, longings and play with the psychological realm of these issues to understand the deeper marks it creates. In his recent practice he does photography, video and installation. Helal’s work represents a reality in an alternate space.
