Saiful Huq Omi: "The Photo Activist"
By Billy Kung
Saiful Huq Omi is a young Bangladeshi photographer who has, since 2005, emerged to become one of the most dedicated documentary photographers in the field. His work covering the plight of the Rohingya refugees from 2009 onwards has helped immensely in drawing attention to perhaps one of the most persecuted and abused Muslim ethnic minority group in the world today.
Born in 1980 in Bangladesh, the Dhaka-based Omi grew up in a family surrounded by political activities. His father was a professor at the University of Dhaka and during the height of the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War—which lasted for eight and a half months—the university was at the center of many political activities. Stories of the war and the loss of some of Omi’s immediate family members had been sown deeply into the mental fabric of a young child at an early age. Over a recent telephone conversation with me, Omi relayed how his parent’s teachings had always placed an emphasis on the value of social justice, and never on the importance of having a house or other material needs. In 2005, after he finished his Masters in Engineering he decided to take up documentary photography. When asked why he chose documentary photography and not commercial or advertising photography, his reply was: “I want to tell stories through my pictures and hopefully they can bring about changes. I am more of a ‘photo activist’ than simply a photographer.”
