Due to recent COVID developments, the award presentation will take place during CASE’s inaugural Photography Creating Change benefit on Friday, November 5, 2021, from 5:00-8:00 p.m. CST, at the Catherine Edelman Gallery, 1637 W. Chicago Avenue, Chicago. The now hybrid event (in person and online) will also feature the premier of “Passengers” (2021), A Moment in Time/ Still I Rise Production. Executive Producer: CASE Art Fund, producers: Mimi Chakarova and César Dezfuli. The short film explores CASE Photographer Cesar Dezfuli’s poignant and ongoing multimedia project about 118 young refugees rescued from a boat drifting in the Mediterranean Sea. Benefit tickets start at $100 per person. To purchase tickets and learn more about the event, please visit: CASE Art Fund’s Photography Creating Change Benefit.
“I’m delighted to be recognized by CASE Art Fund as the recipient of its first Humanitarian Award. As someone who is passionate about children’s rights, I look forward to working long term with the organization,” said Shahidul Alam.
Shahidul Alam, Time magazine Person of the Year in 2018, photographer, writer, curator, and human rights activist Shahidul Alam obtained his PhD in chemistry from London University before taking up photography. His photographs have been exhibited at museums including MoMA, Tate Modern, and the Centre Georges Pompidou. His first comprehensive U.S. museum survey, Shahidul Alam: Truth to Power, was recently on view at the Rubin Museum, New York, and then at the Asia Society Texas Center, Houston. Returning to his native country of Bangladesh in 1984, Alam campaigned to bring down its autocratic ruler, General Hussain Muhammad Ershad. In August 2018, he was detained for peacefully expressing his views against the Bangladesh government’s repressive practices. In pursuit of social justice, he founded award-winning Drik Picture Library (1989), an independent media agency that promotes work by Bangladeshi image-makers; the Pathshala South Asian Media Institute (1998), South Asia’s first school of photography; and Chobi Mela (2000), Asia’s first international photography festival. He co-established the international photo agency Majority World. Alam’s photo-based community building initiatives in Bangladesh have also included a training program for disadvantaged children (who are all now media professionals) and the first women photographers collective. As a new media pioneer, Alam helped introduce email to Bangladesh in the early nineties.
CASE Art Fund ’s mission as a nonprofit organization is to raise awareness about children's human rights through the support and exhibition of photography.
CASE's vision is to be at the forefront of presenting photographs that inspire and create a positive impact on social awareness, human rights, and children's education. CASE Art Fund supports internationally established and emerging fine art photographers whose compelling bodies of work reflect their strong commitment towards social justice with a focus on children's human rights. In just three years since its founding, CASE has produced five photographic exhibitions, collaborated with more than 17 photographers, partnered with over 23 organizations, and funded over 17 fellow nonprofits. Photographic projects are exhibited in non-traditional ways in public spaces as well as at art fairs and at other cultural venues. CASE works with organizations, both local and international, to help effect change. This commitment is long term and serves as the backbone for all projects that are funded. Photographers working with CASE Art Fund are: Shimon Attie, Alejandro Cartagena, Keith Carter, Turjoy Chowdhury, Binh Danh, Floriane de Lassée, Cesar Dezfuli, Omar Imam, Nora Lorek, Alessio Mamo, Ruben Martin de Lucas, Gideon Mendel, Andrea Motta, Muhammed Muheisen, Emeke Obanor, Tine Poppe, and Lisa Ross.
