“Because of Hammershøi” A photographic exhibition of female portraits “Because of Hammershøi” is a photographic project conceived & photographed by Enamul Hoque The inspiration we found in Hammershoi’s paintings were the beauty of proportion, the minimalism of his interior style, the austerity of his anonymous silhouettes and the concentration of detail, which all amounts up to unique and strikingly beautiful body of work. It typically brings forth associations of seclusion, solitude and nostalgia to something insignificant. The portraits of this exhibition concentrate on detail. They are a narrative of the beautiful things around us. These are portraits of contemporary women, each having her profession, who agreed to model for us. They are talented and interesting personalities with dynamic lives. We simply showed them in another light; in a brief moment of concentration in the style of this particular artist. The garments, worn by these women, belong to some of the most creative names in contemporary fashion design. The set design portrays a part of our environment, where objects used have been purchased from shops or come from private collections. We feel that the modernity of Hammershoi’s pictures has been languishing for a long time in the shadow of oblivion but today this modernity is clearly visible when projected upon familiar silhouettes, faces, objects and interior atmosphere. The added inspiration in these portraits is the diversity of London, the people we meet every day, the material world, which surrounds us, the street markets, vintage bazaars and atmosphere of preserved tradition. We believe that each story told finds its listeners and the minimalism and exquisiteness of Hammershoi’s world, as per our interpretation, will hopefully find its audience too. We extend our heartiest gratitude to Tij and Burhan Hassan, Jonny Mountain, Frode Hegeland, also a massive thank you to our crew Marieta Tsenova , Maciek Surowick , Marco Majocchi and Eugene Baxter-Cockbill and all our models for their help and support. The Models Are: Amanda Harris (English), Ana Vrancean (Romanian), Antoaneta Angelova (Bulgarian), Assia Rosica (Italian), Charlie Hawker (English), Emily Ballard (English), Ivelle Jargalyn (Mongolian), Laura Steel (English), Maria Petrova (Bulgarian), Monique Kleigunther (German), Rachel Tattersdill (English), Susan Jardine (Scottish), Tijen Hassan (Cyprian), Vaida Drungilaite (Lithuanian), Vesela Кazakova (Bulgarian), Vesselina Vandova (Bulgarian), Vibeke Luther (Norwegian), Victoire Sawadogo (French), Yalda Keshavarzi (Iranian) The photo sessions have been made with garments of: Agnes B, Ben Sherman, Comme des Garcons, Cos, Garden Paris, Jean Paul Gaultier Classic, H&M, Katarzyna Szczotarska, Martin Margiela, Max Mara, Stella McCartney, SimplyVera Vera Wang, Polo Ralph Lauren, Veronique Branquino, Yohji Yamamoto

Opposite ME is an ongoing portrait study of London and of Londoners on the move in the London Underground network by Frode Hegland & Enamul Hoque. It is a look at the melting pot of humanity that makes up the populations of London as they go about their daily lives, on their way to work, to home, to meet friends, to meet lovers and so on. We started shooting this project in 2012, the year The Olympics came to London as a dedication to this great city we call home. ‘All my personal feelings about London has been put into flux since the Brexit vote in 2016. I have seen the mainstream narrative change dramatically of London and of the UK as a whole. It has raised a lot of personal questions about my own identity, belonging, how and where we belong as children of migrants and of the wider diaspora community’ Enamul Hoque ‘London is my home and it is the heart of what I move through. Since London is such a melting pot with such strong international connections, it now looks like London is leaving Britain more than it is leaving the EU, and I hope we can re-integrate over time, and get along and recognise ourselves in those sitting opposite us as we move through life.’ Frode Hegland

Movement in De Stijl “Photography cannot record abstract Ideas” Encyclopedia Brittanica In 2012 I read this innocent yet incredibly provocative statement in one of the defining reference books of our time. The words ‘Photography cannot record abstract ideas…’ glowered back with such unquestionable certainty and self-assurance that I couldn’t help but think of a way to challenge its authority. Can photography – such an expressive art form - really be incapable of recording abstract ideas? I set out to answer this question by creating a modern abstract photography project: Movement in De Stijl by Enamul Hoque Movement in De Stijl aims to show how photography can replicate the abstract harmony of the De Stijl movement, and in doing so, record abstract ideas. Comprising of 30 images – it uses modern HDR digital photography and the Harris Shutter process to create abstract images that have little or no point of reference. Abstraction manifests itself in the very method these images are produced as well, in the sense that my head space as the creator of these images is occupied by nothing else except for the creation of the horizontal and vertical lines balances with the colours. Whilst these images depict non objects I would dare to say they do create an ideal of a certain harmony and order. The De Stijl movement De Stijl is a Dutch artistic movement founded in 1917. Also known as neo-plasticism, proponents of De Stijl looked to express a utopian ideal of spiritual harmony and order. They believed in reducing everything down to the essentials of form and colour. Simplifying visual compositions to vertical and horizontal directions - using only primary colours. Hence the importance of the Harris Shutter technique in this project – which only uses 3 primary colours. "... this new plastic idea will ignore the particulars of appearance, that is to say, natural form and colour. it should find its expression in the abstraction of form and colour, that is to say, in the straight line and the clearly defined primary colour." 'Neo-Plasticism in Pictorial Art'. An essay by Piet Mondrian. Movement in De Stijl project seeks to express an idea of spiritual harmony and order via an abstract idea in photography furthermore this project seeks to answer a question raised by Encyclopedia Brittanica.

Off Peak

Project: Chicken Tikka Masala Chicken Tikka Masala is chicken tikka, or chunks of chicken, marinated in spices and yogurt then baked in a tandoor clay oven which is then cooked in rich-tasting red to orange-coloured masala sauce. The masala sauce is usually creamy, lightly spiced and contains tomatoes. Surveys have found Chicken Tikka masala to be the most popular dish in British restaurants and it has been called “Britain’s true national dish - one in seven curries sold in the UK is a Chicken Tikka masala. There are approximately 12,000 curry houses in Britain, most of which are Bangladeshi owned, employing about 100,000 people with an annual turnover of around £4bn. Britain now exports chicken tikka masala all over the the world including Pakistan, India and Bangladesh. Chicken Tikka Masala is photographic study investigating the unseen lives of migrant restaurant workers in the UK. This project sets out to explore issues of cultural identity, migration, nationality & the unseen lives and the environment of migrant restaurant workers working within the indian catering industry in the UK.

Chwarel Penmaenmawr Quarry 2000BC - 2013 PENMAENMAWR QUARRY Historic background: the present workings at Penmaenmawr continue a tradition of stone-quarrying which begins in the third millennium BC, when Graiglwyd was worked for stone suitable for axe-making. It was the third most productive of the Prehistoric axe-making sites in Britain, after the factories of Great Langdale and Scafell in the Lake District and around St Ives in Cornwall, whose products vied with each other in Neolithic markets throughout the island. Graig Lwyd stone axes have been found all over Britain, and the extensive quarrying is thought to have been initiated in the earlier Neolithic and developed into the later Neolithic. The first leases which indicate modern exploitation of the Penmaenmawr outcrop for stone are dated 1833. In the first instance operations amounted to extracting suitable material from the unconsolidated scree slopes, flaking them into setts, and transporting them as ballast on ships bound for Liverpool. The early extraction pits were surveyed as part of the detailed survey of the north slopes below the Graiglwyd. Within a decade two independent quarries had been developed, one on the Eastern flank (Graiglwyd) and the other occupying the western extremity (Penmaen). Both quarries concentrated on sett production although loose stone for ballast was of increasing importance. Crushing mills were therefore established from the 1890s onwards and production increasingly concentrated on this commodity thus expanding at the expense of the sett making enterprises. The two quarries were amalgamated under the same management in the early part of this century and the joint operations linked by a quarry railway. In the late 1930s the Graiglwyd quarry ceased as a sett production unit and the eastern workings were accordingly abandoned. The present quarry at Penmaenmawr occupies the western part of the outcrop and concentrates on producing aggregate for road construction and for railway ballast. A new crushing plant was installed in 1983 and the present output of the quarry is 600,000 tonnes per annum. The planned reserve of the quarry concession is approximately 40 million tonnes, giving an estimated life span for the whole operation of sixty years. Since quarrying has been concentrated on the western Penmaen end of the outcrop the summit of the mountain has been reduced by approximately 400 feet and in the process the whole prehistoric hillfort of Braich y Ddinas was consumed in an operation that paid only minimal attention to archaeological detail. These images are the result of a personal invitation by the Welsh artist Jwls Willams to collaborate and contribute towards a larger project about Penmaenmaer Quarry.

Mongolian Landscapes

SELF PROPELLED is portrait study of Copenhagen and its residents.

HOLD TIGHT is an observation of commuters travelling by bus into Dhaka during the rush hour. Buses in Dhaka are generally overcrowded, often to the extent of people riding on the bus steps and sometimes even the roof. These transport service providers are rarely insured nor regulated. There are daily fatal accidents involving them. There is no known public record of the number of accidents nor deaths incurred on the roads across Bangladesh by bus travel.

DHAKARAMA Dhakarama is a photographic exhibition of street panoramas of Dhaka by London based photographer Enamul Hoque. Hoque regularly visits Dhaka and continues to experiment and push the boundaries of mobile digital technology in archiving and creating an intimate portrait of an evolving megacity. Dhaka is the capital of Bangladesh and one of the most densely populated megacities in the world, with a population of over 17 million people. The images are of some of the main streets of Dhaka, and reflect the colour, vitality, chaos and life in a densely packed city. These photographs were taken 2013 onwards and reflect my continual interest in representation the daily life and form part of his work as a visual artist. It contrasts the structured / controlled work that I am regularly involved in and provides an insight into the way photography can be used to represent motion.

"The Padma river Is dying – not too long ago It was gigantic! " It is the main distributary of the Ganges. The Padma River is known for it's heavy bank erosion, shifting channels, and sandbars that continually emerge in its course. Riverine is a collection of photographs taken by Enamul Hoque on the Padma River while contemplating the changing nature of the Padma river and its impact on peoples lives as climate change raises the local water level.

Jamdani The technical description of muslins – simple, plain-weave cotton fabrics with equal warp and weft – does little to explain the rich history of Jamdani from Bengal and its extraordinary popularity today. Over many recent decades, ever-rising demand for useful and decorative textiles has led to great expansion of industrialised spinning, dyeing, weaving and printing – yet Jamdani muslins continue to flow out from homes and small factories throughout Bangladesh, for a market-place that stubbornly refuses to decline. Like so many ‘stories’ from South Asia, that of Jamdani muslins begins long ago. History shows that the weaving of cotton cloth was well-established in Bengal by the ninth century. Before the sixteenth century, spinners and weavers had developed skills to prepare fine muslins as well as the coarser, more practical materials needed for everyday wear. With the Mughal conquest, Bengali makers and merchants entered a period of sustained prosperity; with customers across Europe, the Middle East, Persia (now Iran) and South Asia – most of them in search of fashionable elegance, all of them rich enough to buy it – the fine texture, individuality, design intricacy and overall quality of Jamdani muslins reached a peak. There were looms in almost all villages of the Dhaka region – Sonargaon, Dhamrai, Titabari, Jangalbari, Bajitpur among the more famous of them – and many more throughout Bengal. Rupganj Jamdani Village, where most of these photographs were taken, is a cluster of small-scale family-based factories, now producing beautiful sarees not only for discerning women throughout South Asia but also for export to all corners of the globe. Jamdani is, of course, most readily associated with the saree; but today Jamdani art and techniques are used to produce scarves, kurtas, skirts, turbans, handkerchiefs and soft furnishings including screens and tablecloths as well. Most of the owners and their workers here continue to follow long family occupation in Jamdani manufacture. JAMDANI is a photographic study, made in 2012, of weavers and weaving from around Dhaka, of the materials and processes used, and of the limitless variety of products. Together these images depict sophistication in manufacture and a special way of life. They offer us some explanation of how these fabrics come to be valued as they are. But they may serve also to pay tribute to the strength of a tradition that survives – and as an archive of the collision between this tradition and powerful forces of change in our rapidly developing, and increasingly digitised, world … Jamdaini - A Weaving Story has been exhibited as part of The Alchemy Festival. 9 - 21st February 2013 The Royal Festival Hall. Southbank Centre, London, SE1 8XX

Benarassi is a photographic exhibition by Enamul Hoque This project seeks to highlights the weaving traditions still used by the ‘Tati’s’ of Bangladesh for the beautiful Benarasi sarees. The city of Varanasi (Banaras) lies in the great plain of the Ganges as it sweeps across hundreds of miles of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar towards Bengal and the ocean. In the surrounding countryside live and work the many hand-loom weavers whose output carried a centuries-old craft tradition forward from before the Mughal invasion right through British colonial rule, until its abrupt end with the partition of India in1947. Weaving – especially to the detailed, highly decorative ‘geometrical’ Islamic designs originating during Mughal times – was overwhelmingly a muslim and a rural occupation. Faced with division of communities and of the nation along religious lines, many weavers chose to flee Bihar for the ‘safety’ of ‘East Pakistan’, taking with them their families, skills and knowledge. But having Urdu rather than Bengali as their lingua franca, they were accepted more as refugees than as citizens, with little access to proper housing, civil rights or liberties. When ‘East Pakistan’ divided between those who would establish the separate state of Bangladesh and those who wanted to sustain Pakistani rule, the Biharis aligned themselves with the latter, the ‘side’ which lost the bitter civil war in Bengal. A new generation has come to maturity since those turbulent days, and yet another already follows. Bangladesh, still at peace after almost forty years, has granted ‘status’ and civil rights to the Bihari community. Benarasi silk weaving continues, and Benarasi sarees retain their iconic place of importance in muslim social life and, increasingly, throughout the diasporate communities from Bangladesh and the Indian subcontinent. Peace, stability and economic growth quickly prompt changes of aspiration, especially – in the wake of an ‘information explosion’ – amongst the young. There may well be those who, for an indefinite future, will be content to learn and practise the silk-weaver’s trade if their rewards for so doing are sufficiently compatible with family life. But there are others whose education will give rise to quite different ambitions – among them, perhaps, the desire not so much to make these precious fabrics as to design for their use – and present them to a wider world.

I was a really lousy artist as a kid. Too abstract expressionist; or I'd draw a big ram's head, really messy. I'd never win painting contests. I remember losing to a guy who did a perfect Spiderman. - Jean-Michel Basquiat

DISCARDED = dispose of, throw away/out, get rid of, toss out, jettison, scrap, dispense with, cast aside/off, throw on the scrapheap, reject, repudiate, abandon, drop, have done with, shed, informal chuck, dump, ditch, junk, trash, deep-six. Discarded is a series of images from a personal project. “I started shooting this project at a time when I was personally feeling discarded by my family, my friends and the industry that I am involved in. I hadn’t worked in a long time, No commissions had come in and started to think that I was no longer useful or had anything to offer in the field which I work in. I was overtaken by new developments in the industry and felt left behind and outdated. Furthermore, I had been fighting with members of my family, my siblings for awhile and they too were not taking any notice of me, or giving me the time to deal with how I was feeling and as I felt this overwhelming emotion, and the feeling of being …DISCARDED. I decided to look at and investigate the things we discard everyday. Things that we do not need or pay any attention to, things that are a part of our everyday life that we don’t look at twice. I decided to make all discarded things look beautiful,modern clean, new, presentable and current and valid.”

Analogue is a still-life study of a stack of recent exam papers waiting to be marked. It is a quiet reflection of our ever-changing world and the relentless race towards modernity and all things digital.

"The strangeness will wear off and I think we will discover the deeper meanings in modern art." - Jackson Pollock

Somewhere Else" is a portrait study of how we are always somewhere else in the modern world.

“Mongols” are a series of intimate portraits photographed in Mongolia of Mongolians.

Nightshift is a series of urban landscapes shot at night in various locations around the world.

A collection of studio portraits

A portraits study of the followers of Fakir Lalon Shah