Born in 1 955 in Dhaka , Bangladesh , Shahidul Alam studied and taught chemistry in London where he obtained a PhD from London University. He started photography in 1 980. In 1 983 he was awarded the “Harvey Harris Trophy” for best photography by the London Arts Council. He also began working professionally that year. He started working as a commercial and advertising photographer in Dhaka in 1 984 and became the president of the Bangladesh Photographic Society in 1 989. He started documenting the popular resistance against autocratic president General Ershad since 1 987. The work led to Alam becoming the first Asian recipient of the prestigious Mother Jones Award in 1993.

Alam founded Drik Picture Library ( www.drik.net ) in 1989, the Bangladesh Photographic Institute in 1 990, Pathshala, the South Asian Institute of Photography ( www.pathshala.net ) in 1 998, Meghbarta ( www.meghbarta.org ), Bangladesh's first webzine in 1 999, Chobi Mela ( www.chobimela.org ), the first festival of photography in Asia in 2000 and Bangladesh Human Rights Network ( www.banglarights.net ) in 2001. He is currently involved in setting up a regional centre for investigative journalism and public information access booths in Bangladesh .

Jury member of numerous international photographic competitions including World Press Photo where he has been a judge on four occasions, Alam was the first non-western chairperson in World Press Photo's history. He was awarded the Andrea Frank Foundation Award and the Howard Chapnick Award in 1 998 and is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society.

A prominent social activist Alam is also a promoter of new media and helped introduce email to Bangladesh in 1 994. He also setup the first web portal in the country. Alam has lectured and published widely on photography, new media and education, in the USA , Europe , Africa , Asia and Australia and Latin America in prestige locations like the MIT Media Lab in Boston , Nairobi Museum , Photographer's Gallery in London , Centro de la Imagen in Mexico and Penang University in Malaysia .

His work has been shown in leading galleries such as the Museums of Modern Art in New York , Oxford , and Gunma, the Photographer's Gallery in London the George Pompidou Centre in Paris and the Museum of Contemporary Arts in Tehran . He is one of the curators for the book ‘Blink' published by Phaidon Press of London . He was a contributing editor of “The Critical Mirror” a commemorative book on photojournalism published by Thames and Hudson . He curated the exhibition “Water The First Element” for the OIC conference in 2004 at the Nat ional Art Gallery in Malaysia .

Alam's first short film ‘In Search of the Shade of the Banyan Tree' has been shown in festivals in Bangladesh , Malaysia , UK and the USA and the Singapore History Museum . His ongoing work on migration was shown at the Oldham Gallery in July 2003, where he was an artist in residence. The work will be shown at the Zanzibar Film Festival in July 2005. He is currently an international fellow for Sunderland University and the Arts Council of Britain, doing a project on the British Upper Class. The work will be inaugurated in the UK in September 2005.

Alam's photographs and articles have been published in leading media outlets like Time Magazine, Newsweek, The New York Times, The Guardian, The Observer, Liberation, Paris Match and The New Straits Times.

A human rights activist, Alam is currently setting up a regional “Centre for Investigative Journalism” in Asia and is an adviser for UNESCO and World Press Photo in a project supporting media initiatives in Africa .

Alam is on the board of trustees and a founder member of the LEARN Foundation which provides ICT training for rural communities. He is also on the board of PANOS South Asia, the Eugene Smith Memorial Fund and the Advisory Board of the Nat ional Geographic Magazine.