Merchant of Venice
Photos, 2019

“All that glitters is not gold” – W. Shakespeare Bangladeshi people came with dreams, many sailed the Mediterranean Sea, entered to catch the rose from heaven and they became the merchants of Venice. Life is a journey, everyone makes a purpose to live, people are trying to make their life worthy as they have chased to find a land of opportunity, many died in the sea trying to reach the shore of Italy.

Bio
Noor Ahmed Gelal was born in 1977 in Dhaka, Bangladesh, where he has begun to approach the photographic field through a basic course at the Institute of Photography in Dhaka. Since 2003, Gelal has taken up professional photography, mainly documenting travels, cultural and social issues and nature. Nowadays, he is a contract documentary photographer for the NETZ Bangladesh, WaterAid Bangladesh and is a freelance photographer for Malteser International – Deutsch and German Embassy in Dhaka.
His works have been published in many national and international publications, such as The Daily Star, The Star Insight, The Samakal News Paper, Dhaka Tribune, The Prothom Alo, IFC (International Finance Corporation) World Bank Group, The Guardian, BBC, The British Journal of Photography, aday.org Stockholm, Sweden, IPW 2013 (Indonesia), etc. His pieces have been shown in seven solo exhibitions between Germany and Bangladesh and in major group exhibitions, like Mall Galleries, London 2018, “6 Different Places in Konya, Turkey”, Loke Wan Tho Gallery, Selegie Art Center, Singapore, 2015; “Siena Art Photo Travel”, Siena International Photography Exhibition, Italy, 2015; at Museé du Louvre, Paris, France, July 2015; and Kaohsiung International Photographer Exhibition, Taiwan, 2015.
In 2019, Gelal received an Honorable Mention at World Water Day Photo Contest 2019, Italy. He has been recently awarded the second prize at The Independent Photographer competition, USA, October 2018 and resulted in Overall Winner and Category Winner of Pink Lady Food Photographer of The Year 2018.