Inside a Bangladeshi Journalist’s Dangerous Journey From Photographer to Prisoner

It was only by chance that Shahidul Alam began taking photographs. A chemistry doctoral student in London, Alam purchased a Nikon FM for a friend while traveling in the United States and Canada in 1980. The friend couldn’t reimburse him, so he kept the camera.

“I started using it,” Alam, 63, tells TIME in Dhaka. “It was when I recognized, working as a social activist, how powerful images were, that I decided I’d become a photographer.

It was only by chance that Shahidul Alam began taking photographs. A chemistry doctoral student in London, Alam purchased a Nikon FM for a friend while traveling in the United States and Canada in 1980. The friend couldn’t reimburse him, so he kept the camera. “I started using it,” Alam, 63, tells TIME in Dhaka. “It was when I recognized, working as a social activist, how powerful images were, that I decided I’d become a photographer.