How does one know history? Is it through the texts we were told to learn word-to-word, top to bottom? Is it the stories our grandparents tell us? Is it the silence that would follow at the dinner table when you’d ask about your family’s past? Or is it the pages that are torn away from history books when those in power choose to retell it?

In 1980, Shahidul Alam, a 25-year-old Bangladesh native, bought a Nikon FM camera while travelling North America. It was meant for a friend, but when the friend couldn’t reimburse Alam, the latter kept it for himself. Then a chemistry student in London, the accidental photographer is now one of the most renowned photojournalists and activists in the world.