Bangladeshi youth Md Asaf Ud Daula won an international photo contest titled 'The World's Best Photos of#Green2020' launched by Agora recently. A mobile app Agora launched the #Green2020 photo competition through its free-to-use mobile app on May 15, 2020. This online photo contest invited its global community of photographers to participate with their best "green" shots for a chance to win the $1,000 top prize. A total of 17,689 photos represented the color of growth, regeneration, and health have been submitted to the online contest, but only one has been voted "World's Best Photo of #Green2020" to Bangladeshi photographer Md Asaf Ud Daula who won the competition with a heartwarming photo of young boy plucking flowers under the rain at Akkelpur in Joypurhat. Photographers had until May 29th to participate for the chance to be selected in the top 50 finalists and make it to the final voting rounds.
Asaf said this achievement is not only for me but also for our country. Hailing from Akkelpur upazila of Joypurhat, he is an engineer by profession. Asaf started his participation in photo exhibitions and competitions in 2014. Since then, he has received one award after another presenting Bangladesh to the world. He participated in several photography contests in Italy, Kazakhstan, Nepal, India and other countries. He also had a solo exhibition titled 'Spirit of Faith' organized by Aurora Vision and the 21st Religion Today Film Festival in Italy while he got the Best Photographer Award. Talking about his photography journey, Asaf said, "I got a 1.3-megapixel mobile phone from my uncle in 2008, then I used to pick whatever I liked, even then I did not know the meaning of images and photographs. After buying the first Semi-SLR camera in 2012, I started studying online, doing various workshops, learning to hang out with senior photographers, he added.