20 years of anything is a rather big affair. The 10th edition of Chobi Mela has just wrapped up. Here I look to the people who put it together year after year, and the matters that pushed its presence among us through the crevices of this gridlocked city.

The aforementioned, are the first few lines from the poem The Earth is Closing on Us, by Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish. The poem is based on the plight of the refugee crisis. According to UNHCR, a refugee is someone who has been forced to flee his or her country because of persecution, war or violence.

Academic and artist Naeem Mohaiemen, who was nominated last year for the UK's prestigious Turner Prize (the Prize eventually went to Scotland's Charlotte Prodger), is one of the most informed people of our time.

The tenth edition of Chobi Mela, one of the most prestigious photography festivals in Asia, started on 28 February, 2019 with an opening rally from Pathshala South Asian Media Institute following an inauguration ceremony at Chhayanaut Auditorium.

As a part of Chobi Mela X, Vanessa Winship's solo photography exhibition, She Dances on Jackson, is currently taking place at Allaince Francáise de Dhaka (AFD). The series features landscapes of rural and urban American cities and suburbs and portraits of their inhabitants, all of which are shot on film and printed in black and white.

A programme titled 'Don McCullin - The Impossible Peace' was conducted by Robert Pledge on the second day of the Chobi Mela X, at Goethe-Institut Bangladesh.

A dead face, bruised, emerges out of muddy waters, bricks lie strewn around. Only the face, and no other parts are visible. Gouged eyes stare like black holes.