Interview With Mahmud Tareq Hassan Khan From Norway

BY Sean November 18, 2022

Mahmud Tareq Hassan Khan

Mahmud Tareq Hassan Khan is an extraordinary photographer with a wide range of photography styles at the ready.

Born in 1973, I'm a northern Norway-based photographer/artist. By education, I have got doctoral degrees in Pharmacology and MBA in management. Since 2000, I have mainly worked in academia for research & teaching.

I started doing photography in 1987 when I was in grade 8. My recently passed away father then gifted me a Yashica Electro 35 analog camera. That was my beginning. I'm mainly a self-taught photographer, yet learning from trial & error.

Of course, I clearly remember that. With my father's gift the Yashica Electro 35 analog camera, I took a landscape shot where my father was walking on paddy farmland. The farm was full of water, so I was able to take reflection of my father in the water, too, in that shot.

Currently, I’m using a Nikon full-frame, a Fujifilm medium format & a APS-C cameras.

I want to show the world, what I see through my lenses.

"That's a nice shot".

My long way from my childhood memories till now. More importantly, my idol, my father is no more with us, but his gift to my childhood remains in my heart.

Candid, minimal edit, no manipulation whatsoever.

It's an honour to me. I don't have a team, but I wish one day. Such honours will increase my enthusiasm and my strength & confidence.

I travel a lot, both due to my work as well as for vacations. I shoot when I see something interesting in my path and very likely I shoot candid. I don't have any fixed projects. I shoot and if I believe something I get interesting on my digital celluloid I try to put it (those) into some groups or some kind of projects. The photos I submitted for this EPA awards, I thought could be also interesting for the global audiences.

As I said earlier, such honours will increase my enthusiasm and my strength & confidence.

Michael Kenna, Fan Ho, Olga Karlovac, etc.

Don't go for street or documentary photography. That's not you. You are very good at the landscape. You are technically even more sound than me!

Shoot, whatever and however you like. Don't waste time for recognition.

I shoot, whatever and however I like. And, I don't waste time for recognition.

I update myself every day via books, the internet, and of course YouTube.

During my recent trip to South Asia, I was fortunate to shoot more than 10K photographs. Of them, many are covering people mostly working women. What amazes me is that there are more women working to support their families than before and in varieties of sectors, not only in garments. Even I noticed they are working in the construction, sells, and small business sectors beside men as their counterparts, day & night.